Topic: Sandra Dawn Raemaki. Her needless death caused by Snow Tyres 1 Oct 2007

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This is a place where I've felt it important to help raise awareness of Sandra's needless death. Please feel free to email me with any comments you may have. Email link to myself is shown at BOTTOM of page.Trevor Heath UPDATED

 Sandra Dawn Raemaki (nee Heath)
16 August 1960 - 1 October 2007

Sandra Dawn Raemaki

 

Sandra was 47yrs old and tragically taken as the result of a car accident.
Snow tyres were found to be the cause.
 

UPDATE 11 November 2009: The law change banning the combination of snow tyres and normal road tyres passed  and finally comes into effect on April 1 2010.

That law is shown below.

 Land Transport Rule: Tyres and Wheels Amendment [ (No 2) 2009]

"A Vehicle of Class MA, MB, MC, MD1, MD2 or NA (as defined in Table A in Part 2 of the Rule) is fitted with winter tyres, those tyres must be fitted to all road wheels of the vehicle."

The Rule amendment also specifies that the minimum tread depth of a winter tyre must be 4mm.

I must say long overdue!

Finally - this law has been changed and any further needless loss of life won't happen due to snow tyres being mixed with normal road tyres.

I must give my thanks to Darren Hughes, Labour MP for Otaki and local media for thier support. (Horowhenua Mail, The Chronicle, MoreFM)

Sandra was tragically killed just after 5pm on October 1st 2007 on the Opiki Road just north of Shannon heading towards Palmerston North.
In pelting rain she was rounding a corner...she WAS NOT speeding according to Police.
Family members including myself were at her house waiting for her to arrive for a planned dinner... 

We later discovered that the SCU (serious crash unit) believed the primary cause of the accident to be the tyres on the rear of her car...snow tyres.
(At time of writing) this type of tyre was still legal in New Zealand. They were however banned in Japan after they were 50% worn or more (5mm tread depth or less). At time of writing NZ law allowed them to be worn down to 1.5mm tread depth as per normal road tyres.
In recollection a recipe for disaster...

TVNZ's CloseUp program ran a story on these tyres. Click Here for that story.

The CloseUp story was aired on 18 May 2007...5 Months prior to Sandra being killed...
Unfortunately the law change came 3 years too late for my sister...but at least it eventually came.
Hopefully it will save the lives of others who may not be aware they even have these lethal tyres on thier cars.

 

Now together with my eldest sister Beryl
"FOREVER YOUNG AND FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS"

Email Me

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Trevor Heath
was the last to edit Sandra Dawn Raemaki. Her needless death caused by Snow Tyres 1 Oct 2007
on Sep 10th, 2010 at 11:13 AM
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Trevor Heath
created Sandra Dawn Raemaki. Her needless death caused by Snow Tyres 1 Oct 2007
on Oct 11th, 2007 at 10:17 PM
 

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Sandra Dawn Raemaki. Her needless death caused by Snow Tyres 1 Oct 2007


Date of birth:16/08/1960
Date of death:01/10/2007
 
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Sandra Dawn Raemaki. Her needless death caused by Snow Tyres 1 Oct 2007 by Trevor Heath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 New Zealand License