Driver to pay $5000 over tourist death

KILLED: German backpacker Mia Pusch.

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A Whanganui truck driver whose vehicle struck and killed a German tourist near Bulls has been disqualified from driving for 12 months and ordered to pay $5000 reparation to the dead woman's family for emotional harm and suffering.

Ronald Cleeve, 67, had pleaded guilty to a charge of careless driving causing death of Mia Susanne Pusch and was sentenced in Marton District Court by Judge Michael Radford, Marton police told the Wanganui Chronicle.

Ms Pusch, 19, died on January 5 after she was hit by the truck driven by Cleeve, while riding her bike on State Highway 3 near Bulls.

Ms Pusch, who arrived in New Zealand last October, described the perils cyclists in New Zealand faced in the final entry of her online blog on December 30.

"When one is a cyclist on New Zealand roads, one is not only torn from one's daydreams by diving-bombing magpies but is more often threatened by a more nasty species that really requires more attention: truck drivers," Ms Pusch wrote.

"They swerve past the cyclists who are struggling under their own steam at breakneck speed, mainly within only a half-metre to a metre gap, all the while aggressively honking their horn."

- NZPA