NotFlyingScot wrote:Following last Tuesday nights incident involving the fencing cable tied across the track I commented on the Thursday that the M7 people had by then fully repaired all the loose cable fencing in the Dean Park area. Looks like they have since decided to remove temptation from the vandals ( criminals?) way and I saw this afternoon that now ALL the cable has been removed from the fences around that area. Maybe they will replace with the weldmesh panels used elsewhere on the pathway?
NFS
Thanks for the update NFS. For those who missed it, the incident last Tuesday was reported in the
Footpath Racers thread. The victim rode into a trip wire strung across the path, and suffered a broken shoulder socket.
This was not an act of vandalism. Just setting the trap was Criminal:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/ ... 2/s49.html
NSW CRIMES ACT 1900 - SECT 49 wrote:
Setting trap etc
49 Setting trap etc
(1) Any person who:
(a) places or sets, or causes to be placed or set, any trap, device or thing (whether its nature be electronic, electric, mechanical, chemical or otherwise) capable of destroying human life or inflicting
grievous bodily harm on any person, or
(b) knowingly permits any such trap, device or thing to continue to be placed or set,
with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm shall be liable to imprisonment for five years.
NSW Crimes Act wrote:
"Grievous bodily harm" includes:
(a) the destruction (other than in the course of a medical procedure) of the foetus of a pregnant woman, whether or not the woman suffers any other harm, and
(b) any permanent or serious disfiguring of the person, and
(c) any grievous bodily disease (in which case a reference to the infliction of grievous bodily harm includes a reference to causing a person to contract a grievous bodily disease).
Greg's injuries might fall short of grievous bodily harm definition, but the trap was certainly capable of inflicting grievous bodily harm or worse. Teenage rider on a shorter frame bike could have been sliced in two.
Given the actual injuries incurred, the offender could possibly be charge with assault at the least, and has shown a reckless indifference to human life that gets very close to the definition of
murder.
For anyone thinking that riding the M7 shoulder might be a safer option, this
Feb 2008 rock-throwing incident on the M7 at Deans Park preceded the reports of attacks on the cycleway. Those juvenile criminals would now be 14 to 16. Don't know if its linked to the problems around parts of Blacktown with rock throwing at buses, but I'm told bus-drivers fear taking buses into the Deans Park estate. Yet, it's a long way from being the most disadvantaged estate in the West.
Neither motorists, cyclists nor pedestrians are safe whilst these criminals are free to roam the streets. Its good to see Westlink taking some prompt action, but good policing is needed to restore public safety.