
By Checkpoint RNZ
A woman who was off work for a year after being seriously injured in a head-on collision with a speeding dirt bike on a cycle track believes someone will be killed unless more is done to stop the problem.
Joanne was cycling on a bike track at a Porirua park in 2022 when she was wiped out by a dirt bike rider and has only just had the metal plate removed that was put in her leg after the accident.
She told Checkpoint the fact she survived the crash makes her consider herself lucky.
“I was cycling along and it wasn’t really even on a corner, a blind corner or anything like that, but suddenly I saw a motorbike coming towards me and I couldn’t do anything about it because he was coming so fast… I sort of tried to swerve but couldn’t. The next thing [that] went through my mind, this is going to be bad.”
The bike collided with her head-on and she was thrown into the air.
“I ended up with a broken leg. It was a spiral fracture of my tibia and I had to have that fixed in surgery, so they put a plate in my leg.”
She had to take a year off from her job as a kindergarten teacher after the accident.
“I need to be able to jump up and run across a playground… the healing just took a really long time.”
Joanne recently had to take a further three weeks off work to get the plate removed from her leg, which was giving her pain.
The rider who caused the accident was never found and after a few months of searching police closed the file.
“They sent the dogs out as I was being loaded on to the ambulance. I saw a policeman with a sniffer dog and he was, you know, trying to find the guy. But yeah, they never found him.”
Three years on, Joanne said she is still haunted by the noise of motorbikes.
“I’m terrified. If I hear a motorbike even not close by… I haven’t quite got over that.”
She said it was not until after her accident that she realised how big an issue dirt bikes were.
“That’s a known problem in the park. People who live nearby have the bikers going through their properties and cutting through alleyways and stuff because it’s a big park and you just can’t close every exit… the entry I took into the park is closed to dirt bikers but other places aren’t.”
Now Joanne believes dirt bikers need dedicated areas where they can go “rip up the park” to avoid more accidents.
“I’ve heard of other people being hurt in that park. I heard of a young mum with a pram… someone’s going to get killed in that park or somewhere else in New Zealand.”
Despite police responses, residents say bikes often return within minutes. Some are calling for tougher action, including impounding bikes.
Police urge Porirua residents to report dangerous riding with details like bike descriptions, video footage, and locations. Call 111 for ongoing incidents, or 105 for past events.