Stagecoach refuses to apologise for the death of a chinese man

Oct 24, 2007 7:03 PM

The Stagecoach bus company has made a big payout to the family of a man who died after apparently being hit by one of its buses, but it has not apologised. Rongfa Jiang's family now plans to take legal action against the bus company, as they question the punishment given to the driver.

Jiang died from severe head injuries after being allegedly swiped from the footpath by a bus.

The driver was sentenced to 40 hours of community service for failing to stop and ascertain injury.

Hao Jiang, the victim's son says people who are cruel to animals in New Zealand get more punishment than the bus driver.

"It appears that in New Zealand the life of a China man is worth less than a dog," he says.

The family's lawyer, Frank Deliu, says the family all along has asked for a more through investigation.

"There were supposedly eight other witnesses on the bus that were never found. So police have said all along they don't have the key witness to pinpoint to show the driver knew what had happened."

On Wednesday morning, the head of Stagecoach arrived with a substantial cheque, enough to cover the family's living costs for most of this year.

But there has been no apology from Stagecoach and there will not be. While the company says it has enormous sympathy for the Jiang family, it says the bus driver involved had never been found accountable for the death by police or by the courts.

That's not good enough for Rongfa Jiang's widow who wants her lawyers to make a diplomatic protest to the Chinese government.

"She now feels justice hasn't been done, so she's going back to her country to see what other support she can get," says Deliu.

"If this was simply an unavoidable accident, I could accept my fate. But this was much more than that. The pain of the death of my father is even greater because no-one in New Zealand cares enough," says Hao Jiang.

Legal action is also planned against Stagecoach. The driver himself is still working for the company, but not driving buses.

A Close brush with death

Driving down Mt Albert Road today on my way to work... this taxi van from South Auckland Taxis slowly drove past me... all was fine until he slowed down..

This driver with a van full of passengers started to swirve, and started creeping onto my left lane!!
It came so close .. about 5cm from my driver side door before I took evasive measures swirving left towards the pedestrian path and stepped hard on the foot brake to avoid a collision..

And He just kept on driving... Unbelievable.. I later caught up with that driver and beeped my horn in disgust only to see him respond with a handwave and a smile. Wonder how he got his passenger carrying licence.. not even looking in his mirrors or using his indicators when changing lanes.. not to mention checking the blind spot when driving a big full van of passengers.

What the heck.. This should be reported to the Land Transport Safety Authority... sigh.. only if I had noted down the registration plate number.

A Dummy's Guide to April Fools day 2007

Blog entry type: Incident Report / Moans
Date of Incident: April 1 2007 - Aprils fools day

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Chapter 1.

Local time: 4am NZST
Location: YoshiBedroom™, Auckland

Woke up in the morning, yes at 4am..(not by the annoying sound of my alarm clock.. but) by a familiar sound.. kept thinking what it was.. then I opened my eyes, it was still pitch black.. saw my whole room flashing bright orange! I looked to the right, was I dreaming? .......... No! saw my phone flashing orange (because of the its the colour of the external display wallpaper). I suddenly remembered that familiar sound was the sound of the SMS ringtone I selected. Then I realised... whoa! someone just texted me.. but WHY AT 4AM!? ... *faints* ..

** note to self: always turn phone to the silent mode when sleeping/taking a nap next time. **

I reluctantly reached out, thinking might as well check who in their right mind texts people at 4am in the morning... and guess who it was? yes, thats right, you know who you are. (Because of this is a public blog I will not name names, due to privacy laws and the likelyhood of a class 1 action suit against me for defamation.)
I couldn't even read the text also, it was in chinese which was not supported by my phone, the text sender knew that, I went back to sleep pondering why I would receive such a incomprehensible text, still blurry, I fell back into a deep sleep once again :), which FYI was very pleasant because I was totally exhausted as I worked 13 hours on saturday from 5am til 6:45pm.. lol.

After finally waking up, I decided to check out what the message was, all of it appeared as squares on my phone. So i forwarded it to mum's phone (which supports chinese language).
The Message Read: 愚人节快乐~！不要被别人戏弄哦！
*roughly translated*: Happy April Fools day, dont get fooled by other people!
Yes.. thats right. A perfectly beautiful sunday morning, only to be reminded its april fools.
It was later clear, that the message sender had insomnia, which was understandable, so he/she decided to mass-text people instead. haha. Thanks for Sharing (the insomnia) though.

Apparently, that wasn't the only April fools lesson I learnt the hard way... *to be continued*

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Chapter 2.

Local time: 2pm NZST
Location: YoshiWorkroom™, Auckland

After Arriving home from Church, decided to check my Gmail. Nothing Much caught my eye expect for a *New Feature* from gmail. After reading it, I was flabbergasted how great and wonderful google has really become, now offering free paper print outs of emails, and photos on glossy paper, which are then sent to you FREE of charge in the post within 2-3 days of ordering. See below.. it truly is really convincing.

**Note to self: lightning doesn't strike the same person twice and there is no such thing as a free lunch, but google is an exception :)**

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New! Introducing Gmail Paper

• Everyone loves Gmail. But not everyone loves email, or the digital era. What ever happened to stamps, filing cabinets, and the mailman? Well, you asked for it, and it’s here. We’re bringing it back.

A New Button

• Now in Gmail, you can request a physical copy of any message with the click of a button, and we’ll send it to you in the mail.Simplicity Squared
• Google will print all messages instantly and prepare them for delivery. Allow 2-4 business days for a parcel to arrive via post.

Total Control

• A stack of Gmail Paper arrives in a box at your doorstep, and it’s yours to keep forever. You can read it, sort it, search it, touch it. Or even move it to the trash—the real trash. (Recycling is encouraged.)

Keep it Secret, Keep it Safe

• Google takes privacy very seriously. But once your email is physically in your hands, it’s as secure as you want to make it

Is it free?

• Yes. The cost of postage is offset with the help of relevant, targeted, unobtrusive advertisements, which will appear on the back of your Gmail Paper prints in red, bold, 36 pt Helvetica. No pop-ups, no flashy animations—these are physically impossible in the paper medium.

How about attachments?

• All part of the deal. Photo attachments are printed on high-quality, glossy photo paper, and secured to your Gmail Paper with a paper clip. MP3 and WAV files will not be printed. We recommend maintaining copies of your non-paper Gmail in these cases.

Is there a limit?

• You can make us print one, one thousand, or one hundred thousand of your emails. It’s whatever seems reasonable to you.

But what about the environment?

• Not a problem. Gmail Paper is made out of 96% post-consumer organic soybean sputum, and thus, actually helps the environment. For every Gmail Paper we produce, the environment gets incrementally healthier.

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OK. So I was thrilled, excited and felt like on top of the world... I got hundreds of photos that can be printed out on my computer, and why not?? its free and its environmentally benefitcial. lol!

After using a few minutes of my espionage skills on the internet... and suddenly remembering the lesson this morning *refer to chapter 1*, I concluded... NO! Google is playing me.. on April Fools day! Grrr!!

**Updated Note to self: Lightning does strike the same person twice, especially Yoshi™ on april fools day. there is no such thing as a free lunch, and google is NOT an exception!!**

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Ending with a high note...

There is a word, which a number of people I know use and use very well in situations and on days like these; dear Blog readers, please DO Read and Learn this word. Use it, use it loud, use it often, and use it Well!

English Spelling: CHEH! Chinese Spelling: 切!

Pronouciation: Ch-ea (Ch as in Chop, ea as in yea/cheer)
Meaning: *you don't need to know.. just use it. trust me. Its not a swear word for your information. :) *

Yoshi™ hereby declares of no regrets and is, was, and will always be highly unrepentant after the events of April Fools day 2007.

Thus concludes Yoshi™'s first and *hopefully* last Dummy's Guide to April Fools Day 2007

:)