Cyclist Dies One Week from World Tour Finish

Cyclist Dies One Week from World Tour Finish

See http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=3Tzut&doc_id=4967&v=1l
for info on Stephan Stoermer and
http://www.bayofplentytimes.co.nz/localnews/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=379...
for the news story, (printed below).

This also comes on top of Steve Fitzgerald, NZ's highest ranked traffic officer being killed on his bike last year and the accident between a truck and participants in a cycle race also in the Bay of Plenty. All of them trucks!

Truck drivers seem to have a poor attitude towards other road users. I heard this week the name they use for campervans is "road maggots". I can only imagine what they call cyclists!!

Nigel

Bay of Plenty Times

Cyclist dies one week from world tour finish.

17.03.2009
by Vicki Waterhouse

The tourist killed after he was hit by a truck while cycling near Te Puke had been biking around the world for the past three years and was due to fly home on Friday.

The man was named today as Stephan Stoermer, 38, of Frankfurt.

Mr Stoermer died on the way to hospital after he was hit by a fully laden logging truck on State Highway 2 near Te Matai Rd last Thursday night.

Mr Stoermer had travelled through 25 countries on his bicycle, throughout Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Australia.

On his website he talked about being on the move all of his life, but not for the purpose of arriving at a destination.

"I'm always looking for a new, different mode of travelling," he wrote.

Mr Stoermer began his journey in the northern hemisphere's spring of 2006.

He said on his website he enjoyed touring the world on a bicycle because he always met people with whom he could tour for hours or days and had the most interesting conversations with them.

On this three-year tour he was meeting people from various cultural backgrounds who shared his interest in cycling.

He also sought to promote environmentally friendly travel and motivate people to use bikes.

His website features hundreds of pictures of himself on the road in various locations.

Mr Stoermer was not wearing a helmet at the time he was hit, and it was hanging on his handlebars.

On his website he said had been stopped for not wearing a helmet twice in Tasmania, Australia, only a month before he arrived in New Zealand.

Senior Sergeant Ian Campion of road policing said Mr Stoermer's family in Germany had been notified of his death.

Mr Campion said according to Mr Stoermer's travel documents, he was due to fly out to Frankfurt on Friday after traversing 26 countries.

He arrived in New Zealand on December 30 and had travelled the South Island.

The Rotorua truck driver who drove the logging truck which hit Mr Stoermer has not been charged over the incident. Police are still investigating the collision.

Mr Campion said it may be some time until the cause of the crash was determined.