20 year old beats up Auckland Transport in court

The Herald reports:

A 20-year-old law student has triumphed over Auckland Transport in court, with a judge ruling the installation of three speed bumps and a raised pedestrian crossing was unlawful.

Sean O’Loughlin took a case to the High Court at Auckland, arguing AT had failed to follow the law for the $667,000 works on The Parade at Little Bucklands Beach.

His case centred on the argument that AT focused on speed reduction and safety issues, skipping the legal requirement to weigh the impact on drivers. The only crash involving (minor) injury was due to a speeding public bus, he told the court.

Justice David Johnstone ruled in favour of the student, finding that AT hadn’t genuinely considered the impact on motorists.

This is a significant case. Basically the court found that AT doesn’t consider motorists when making these decisions.

O’Loughlin believed there were potentially wider ramifications from the ruling because AT had relied on a pre-written template claiming the changes would not “unduly impede vehicular traffic”, and did not give any reason behind that.

“You can go on the Auckland Transport website and see the template. It has all the paragraphs pre-written. It’s possible they use it to make other decisions,” he said.

I predict this law student has a good future in front of him.