One of our readers sent in the link to this story this morning, it’s a shocking example of New Zealand’s culture of brutality and of the callous disregard held by some Kiwis toward  fellow human beings. A few days ago we talked about the film Toby Brennan being shot in Christchurch because the people there had a hardness, it’s a hardness that runs throughout and defines New Zealand’s society.

What right thinking parent would chose to raise a kid in a country that does this to people?

A young motorcyclist was heckled and jeered at as he lay dying beneath a van in Newtown, residents claim.

Shelley McManis, 19, said she was at her Russell Tce flat with her flatmate about 11pm on Saturday when she heard a collision between a motorcyclist and taxi outside the back entrance to Wakefield Hospital. As he lay groaning in agony two men laughed at him and passing motorists jeered “oh shame mate, you crashed”, Ms McManis said.

“The man’s bike bounced off the side of the taxi and he was catapulted into the front of a van on the other side of the street. “Ambulance staff cut all his clothes off. He was groaning and in immense pain. “After the accident I went to the front window of our flat and looked down. I saw two men standing over the young man laughing and mocking him as he lay dying. “At first I thought it was a bag of rubbish they were standing over and laughing about. But when I went down there I saw it was a young man. What they did was disgusting.”

Her flatmate, Valerie Sloss, 19, said she also heard laughing and jeering from the footpath. The Victoria University arts student was too frightened to look out the window or go down to the street. “They were laughing like they were having fun. “My immediate thought was that someone was crashing into bins or something outside.” Ms Sloss said.

The 22-year-old motorcyclist was taken by ambulance to Wellington Hospital but died from his injuries soon after.

“Something else I found quite horrible is that there were people driving past and tooting while the ambulance people looked after the [Newton] motorcyclist,” Ms McManis said. “There were people in a car laughing at him [the victim] and saying ‘oh shame mate, you crashed’. It was just disgusting.”

The two men she saw mocking the motorcyclist were either Maori or Pacific Islanders, she said.

Ms McManis said the Indian taxi driver was distraught after the accident.

The dead man is yet to be named.

Our deepest sympathies go out to the young man who died and to his family and friends.