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Ashburton FIRST PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 27, 1879
District’s drink driving shame
Thursday, November 8, 2012
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Mixed local reactions to Obama’s win By Myles Hume
By Erin Tasker Ashburton has a drink driving problem, Mid-South Canterbury’s top cop says. Mid-South Canterbury Police area commander Dave Gaskin’s comments were prompted by figures that showed Mid Canterbury was providing up to 60 per cent of the area’s drink drivers. Of the 126 drink driving apprehensions in Mid-South Canterbury since July this year, 53 were from Ashburton compared to 48 from Timaru. The remainder were from the outlying rural areas. But when you narrowed it down to the past couple of months, the news for Ashburton was even worse. Of the 31 drink drivers caught in September, 18 were from Ashburton, and of the 25 caught in October, 15 – or 60 per cent - were from Ashburton. “Considering the size of Mid Canterbury compared to South Canterbury, that’s quite dramatic,” he said. The community needed to take responsibility for the problem, and take a stand against drink driving, he said. “It’s a community problem. The police don’t own this by themselves.” But the police would be taking extra steps over the coming weeks to stamp out drink driving. “Ashburton has an alcohol problem; a problem with people drinking and driving,” Mr Gaskin said. “There’s a belief in Ashburton that you can drink and drive and you won’t get caught and that’s completely erroneous because more people are getting caught all the time.” Mr Gaskin said police in South Canterbury were more proactive in their approach to drink driving which meant there was more of a belief there that if you did drink and drive, you’d get caught. That was due to the number of short
Photo Myles Hume 071112-MH-001
American ex-pat Nona Sampson, of Ashburton, voted for Republican Mitt Romney yesterday, however it was not enough as Democrat Barack Obama secured a second stint as the US president. Dave Gaskin duration check points and compulsory breath tests undertaken – something Mid Canterbury would start seeing more of. “Ashburton is very good at catching people but I don’t necessarily believe that catching people is what we want. For every one drink driver you catch, there’s a number you don’t catch,” he said. “We’d rather be stopping people from getting behind the wheel in the first place.” The drink driving message wasn’t always easy to get across. He said rural drink driving was particularly difficult to nail, and that was not helped by the attitudes of some licensed premises. Mr Gaskin said too often police were dealing with fatal car crashes where the occupants had come from a licensed premises. “Responsibility for that lies absolutely solely and squarely with the licensee,” he said. “There’s some ownership by the person drinking but at the end of the day the licensee is making money out of their level of intoxication and they have responsibility.” Mr Gaskin said Mid Canterbury people could expect the police to have a much higher presence on the district’s roads in the lead-up to Christmas.
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As the winner of the US election became clear last night, Nona Sampson could only feel for friends and family back home. Yesterday Democrat Barack Obama was elected to serve his second term in the White House after winning the pivotal swing states. For Ms Sampson, who moved from the US 16 years ago and now lives in Ashburton, it was a hard pill to swallow after she used an absentee vote this year to vote for Republican Mitt Romney. A trip back to her home town in Iowa in July was the driving force behind Ms Sampson’s decision to vote this year, run down homes and family members who did “bits and pieces” to make ends meet was a harsh reality. “Romney being a billionaire, I thought he might be better financially to deal with the problem. “When I went back home it was the same, my friends and family were the same, just the streets had big pot-holes and the houses were so run down.” Ms Sampson’s state voted Obama, but she remained optimistic about where the future lies for the world’s largest economy. “I suppose it can’t get any worse. I hope things turn around and I know it’s not all in his (Obama’s) hands because it’s a cycle and he happened to land in it,” she said. However, for the Gilson family, who also live in Ashburton, it was the news they had been waiting for. Moving to New Zealand from North Carolina in January, the link to their homeland was still strong. “With Obama I feel like there has been less involvement with wars and that is important. With Romney, I just feel he is going to take us into more wars,” mother of two Kelly, 30, said. “I have followed it as closely as I had in the US because it has such an impact on the rest of the world. It’s important for everyone.” Another four years, P6
Dux a family tradition By Myles Hume Her father was dux, her sister was dux, there was only ever going to be one option for Olivia Quinn. The Ashburton College pupil took out the prestigious award at last night’s Year 13 Prizegiving, but for the 17-yearold it was not just a year full of luck and fortune. Olivia had to overcome a year of adversary. Only two months ago her nana died. Being close to her, it was not easy as the sudden death caused disruption during her all-important practice exam week and Olivia relied on close friends and family to get her through. Her nana wrote a letter, wishing to be at the special ceremony last night where Olivia took out the top academic award. “It wasn’t easy at the time but I was at a netball tournament and a few of my mates gathered
around me. “I found it really hard to concentrate with the exam week but I was able to overcome that.” Last night marked a special occasion for Olivia, matching her sister Nikita’s feat of becoming the Mt Hutt College dux of 2010 and following in the footsteps of her father when he took out the prize at Rangiora High School. “I can’t let her get past me,” Olivia said about her sister. Olivia is a lethal mix of science knowledge with a knack for numbers in economics and accounting. She put her prowess down to hard work and dedication, claiming she was not one to rest on her laurels. She took out four top subject prizes last night and is hoping to transfer her knowledge to the University of Otago next year where, depending on exam results, she hopes to study health science and maybe even
become a paediatrician. Netball and athletics take up the rest of Olivia’s spare time and she insists it has been important to have the right balance this year. Although she worked hard to be the best person she could this year, she still did not think she had the nous to match runner-up Caitlin Swan. “She’s amazing, she should be the one that you should be writing about, not me,” Olivia said. With her first exam starting next week, Olivia said she felt she was in good stead to pass the year on a high and hopefully pass with an excellence endorsement. Full prize list, P9 RIGHT: Ashburton College’s dux of 2012 Olivia Quinn battled a year of adversity and even kept to a family tradition to take out the top academic award at the Ashburton College Year 13 Prizegiving at the Ashburton Event Centre last night.
Photo Kirsty Graham 071112-KG-246
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