Nelson news in brief: witnesses sought to assault outside school

Assault witnesses sought

incident on Nayland Rd that required a police presence. “We understand that this was an isolated incident between two families,” he said. The school was providing support to the police with their enquiries. The police said witnesses could contact police through the 105 number, and quote file number 230822/1005. Anonymous information can be given through Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Tasman crashes

Speed, failing to wear seatbelts and drivers impaired by drugs and alcohol are factors in crashes around the Tasman region, say council staff. Statistics presented to Tasman District Council’s operations committee last week showed that over the 2022/2023 financial year, two fatalities and 13 serious injury crashes were recorded, resulting in 17 serious injuries. Seven crashes were loss of control on a bend, while two were loss of control on straights. Three were at crossings and intersections, one involved a pedestrian, one was a rear-end crash and another happened while overtaking. Nine of the crashes were on rural roads, and six were on urban roads. The total figure for crashes, including non-injury and minor injury crashes, is 108. Separately, on the State Highways in the Tasman district, there were 13 fatal or serious injury crashes. Transportation manager Jamie McPherson said the crash information, alongside data on the width alignment and the traffic usage of roads went into the system Waka Kotahi presented around speed management, denoting the high risk areas that would benefit from speed limit treatment, or potential engineering.

Seafood stars

Two Nelson men have been recognised for their contribution to the commerical seafood industry. Darren Guard won the seafood sector leadership award at the Seafood New Zealand annual conference last week. Guard’s 20-year career has spanned stints with Maritime New Zealand and Sealord as a health and safety specialist, successfully reducing fisher injury rates. He began his own Nelson-based business, Guard Safety, in 2015, which provides health, safety and well-being services to the wider maritime industry. He also provides operations for FirstMate New Zealand, a charity that supports the health and well-being of people in the commercial fishing and aquaculture sectors. Jeremy Cooper won a lifetime membership award for his contribution to the paua industry. He has been the chief executive of the Paua Industry Council for 15 years. Along with Storm Stanley implemented a sophisticated data programme to record detailed catch information to ensure harvesting levels were sustainable before such electronic recording was required.

Big cheese

A Nelson entrepreneur’s cheesy snacks are heading for supermarket shelves. Graham Manson won the Foodstuffs Emerge competition last year with his QB’s Crunchy Cheese Snacks, inspired during the 2020 Covid lockdown when he was searching for a snack to help him stick to a keto diet. The competition win helped him scale up the business and he refined his products at Pic Picot’s Food Factory workspace. The snacks were selected for North Island New World supermarkets and are now launching into South Island New World stores.

Four rescue helicopter missions

The Nelson Marlborough Rescue Helicopter crew was called out on four missions in the past week, and also completed four training sessions including boat winch training. On Thursday the crew were called to a medical emergency in Collingwood. On Friday a patient was flown from Wairau Hospital to Nelson Hospital for specialised treatment. On Friday evening, the helicopter airlifted a patient injured in a fall in the Marlborough Sounds and on Sunday they attended a traumatic injury in the Wakefield area. The missions bring the total to 275 for the year. The Nelson Marlborough Rescue Helicopter service is funded in part by the community, for the community and remains a free service thanks to this support. If you would like to support it you can donate online at www.helirescue.co.nz/donate