(truncated) SaltyNZ: You know what? We should just have a law that says 'it's illegal to be an idiot.' The definition of idiot would be anyone who does something that makes a jury blink and wonder to themselves how anyone could be so stupid.

MikeSkyrme:

(truncated) SaltyNZ: You know what? We should just have a law that says 'it's illegal to be an idiot.' The definition of idiot would be anyone who does something that makes a jury blink and wonder to themselves how anyone could be so stupid.

Nope, that wouldn't work either.

You have assumed that the jury would not contain idiots.....

qwerty7:

gzt: Let's face it. The only reason Coca-Cola does not want a warning on their product is because they know it will cause some of their customers to think twice about using it.

There is no reason at all they should have a warning on their product in my opinion. Maybe a little small print on the back just for cover your a** bs but.. At the end of the day she died because she had poor diet.

gzt: I think you will find something that size is what is being proposed. At the end of the day the issue is wider than the tragic death of one person.

Nathan: We done need more regulation, that's just more officials, more bureaucrats that you and I pay for with our taxes, and we can't afford it

NZtechfreak:

JimmyH: She was an adult. It should have been obvious to her and her family that something was wrong, and SHE should have done something about it. Ultimately, she was the author of her own demise, no one else was.

Sorry, I think this assumes rather too much - unless of course you personally knew her and her circumstances?

I think, if we are going to make assumptions, it is safer to assume that she was suffering some deep psychological malaise, if not frank mental illness. This seems fairly self-evident, or at least it does to me as a doctor (who also has an additional 13 years experience working in mental health above and beyond my medical work and training). Her own capacity to 'do something about it' may have been greatly diminished.

I think anyone making statements with the certainty you are is being overly quick to toss this into the 'crisis of personal responsibility' basket, unless you have some deep first hand knowledge of the case (my own assumption, freely admitted, is that you do not).

In some cases I think the desire to quickly attribute all of this to deceased betrays a personal bias in belief structure toward the so-called 'crisis of personal responsibility', which is often used as a way of dismissing things out of hand - a kind of wilful ignorance that absolves anyone of having to do or think anything about problems in society, and an active obstruction to understanding the root causes for many of societies ills which do not reside solely with individuals.

JimmyH: You are correct, I didn't know her personally. However, I don't buy your argument. It's not about "absolving myself from personal responsibility for understanding root causes of societies ills" or any such sociological psychobabble. It's a very clear case of a disturbed woman who sadly and tragically caused her own demise.

JimmyH: From the description of what she went through in her last six months it should have been obvious to her that something was wrong. If you are correct and there was something psychologically wrong with her and she couldn't recognise it, then it should have been obvious to her husband, friends and family that there was something wrong. I would like to think that if I started behaving like that and couldn't see the problem that my friends and family would take action. If she was my wife/sister/daughter/friend I certainly would! If necessary, and they were a family member, I might even take steps to have them committed. But I fail to see how "society" let her down - indeed, outside her friends and family, I don't see how anyone in wider "society" could even reasonably have been expected to know what was going on.

JimmyH: In any event, if she was in that head-space, then putting labels about safe caffeine consumption on the bottles wouldn't have mattered a jot.

BlueShift: Another day another coroner's recommendation: all cyclists should be required to wear hi-viz gear.

networkn:

BlueShift: Another day another coroner's recommendation: all cyclists should be required to wear hi-viz gear.

This is actually a GOOD recommendation. Cyclists SHOULD be required to be visible. Forget the person who dies, the impact on their family etc, imagine LIVING with having killed a cyclist. I like Cyclists, but I think far too many aren't visible enough, have a truly arrogant attitude (Being right won't stop you being dead if you get hit by a car). It STAGGERS me the number of cyclists I see without helmets. I saw a parent with TWO under 5 year old kids, cycling along WITH THEIR HELMETS ON THEIR HANDLEBARS! My God. I was || this close to stopping and giving the parent a piece of my mind.

networkn:

BlueShift: Another day another coroner's recommendation: all cyclists should be required to wear hi-viz gear.

This is actually a GOOD recommendation. Cyclists SHOULD be required to be visible. Forget the person who dies, the impact on their family etc, imagine LIVING with having killed a cyclist. I like Cyclists, but I think far too many aren't visible enough, have a truly arrogant attitude (Being right won't stop you being dead if you get hit by a car). It STAGGERS me the number of cyclists I see without helmets. I saw a parent with TWO under 5 year old kids, cycling along WITH THEIR HELMETS ON THEIR HANDLEBARS! My God. I was || this close to stopping and giving the parent a piece of my mind.

blackjack17:Heaven forbid drivers should pay attention to what is on the road

Bung:

blackjack17:Heaven forbid drivers should pay attention to what is on the road

For some perverse reason that escapes me some cyclists seem to go out of their way to adopt a ninja look with black leggings and black or dark blue tops. When you've spotted all the bright and fluoro ones look again for Mr Invisible.

BlueShift:

Bung:

blackjack17:Heaven forbid drivers should pay attention to what is on the road

For some perverse reason that escapes me some cyclists seem to go out of their way to adopt a ninja look with black leggings and black or dark blue tops. When you've spotted all the bright and fluoro ones look again for Mr Invisible.

I avoided a ninja cyclist last night - 10:30, State Highway 1, cyclist wearing dark clothes, a black backpack, no rear lights on the bike, riding in the cycle lane over a narrow bridge (right past the Highway Patrol HQ). Can't these people commit suicide without unwilling helpers?

NZtechfreak:

BlueShift:

Bung:

blackjack17:Heaven forbid drivers should pay attention to what is on the road

For some perverse reason that escapes me some cyclists seem to go out of their way to adopt a ninja look with black leggings and black or dark blue tops. When you've spotted all the bright and fluoro ones look again for Mr Invisible.

I avoided a ninja cyclist last night - 10:30, State Highway 1, cyclist wearing dark clothes, a black backpack, no rear lights on the bike, riding in the cycle lane over a narrow bridge (right past the Highway Patrol HQ). Can't these people commit suicide without unwilling helpers?

Thanks for providing me a morning chuckle.

I think as a cyclist I'm even more aggravated by cyclists like this, them and the weekend warriors who cycle 2-4 abreast on inner city roads, bloody idiots inspire ill-feeling in motorists towards cyclists and aren't helping the cycling cause.