Christchurch mosque attack hero denied help from ACC
A Christchurch woman who helped victims of the mosque attacks has been declined help by ACC.
Jill Keats was driving past the Deans Avenue mosque when gunfire rang out and she rushed to help a wounded man.
She says she no longer feels healthy enough to work her usual job as an Uber driver and her doctor says this is because she is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“I’ll be just somewhere and all of a sudden I’ll start crying and then… a few times I’ve smelled the cordite, and there’s been no reason for it and I’m dreading Guy Fawkes,” Keats told The AM Show.
“I shake a lot now, It’s like I’ve got Parkinson’s and I don’t know why.”
However, despite support from her doctor, her application for help from ACC has been declined – something Keats says is shocking.
“I was shot at, but because I wasn’t actually physically wounded I’m not covered. In saying that, I’m not the only one, the young guy that I helped save, well he’s in the same boat.
“The public are the first on the scene. When the police did turn up they were fully kitted out in battle armour and yet the rest of us who were trying to help were on the ground with no protection, nothing.”
Keats’ heroics have also gone unnoticed by the Government and she says the lack of a simple thank you has been hard to take.
“I don’t want to be a hero, I don’t want any awards but I would have just liked somebody to say thanks.”
“Everyone else has lined up, shook Prince William’s hand and to those of us who were actually, physically there – it’s like a double assault.”
Keats also wants to know why she hasn’t been asked to give evidence to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the mosque attacks as she believes her account would be useful.
“My brother had to ring the Commissioner and ask why I haven’t been interviewed, why aren’t I a witness?”
Newshub.
Time for Cindy to take off the burqa and the frowny face and look after a genuine kiwi in need. She is “one of us” if any one is.
It’s like she is irrelevant. Just an ordinary white woman going about her work day. Initially she was interviewed by the media for her amazing intervention and help among flying bullets. Then forgotten, no thank you from our caring PM-select, not even the City Council, no interview by the police, and not invited to meet Prince William while every mosque hanger-on available was no doubt invited as shattered victims.
Or, of course, she’s a dishonest person shouting “Look at me”.
Reading the post I suspect that is more likely.
Many moons ago I was shot at by an idiot, wore a few shotgun pellets.
Except with rage at the time I still haven’t started shaking, I only cry when I see my tax bill and, although I once had a chat with his granddad, I certainly have no desire to shake the hand of the rich Pom.
And was everyone else around you treated as a victim and you not?
Hell yes. I’m a white, male, hetrosexual, employed New Zealander.
EVERYone else is a victim.
Wrong colour, wrong race and wrong religion. Wrong place at the right time though, good on her for trying to help.
On a slow news day she has the right genitals. It would have to be an even slower news day for a white male.
If this is true it is a very sad state of affairs.
Maybe she should be tutored by first fish who appears not to have any difficulty gathering the media around him and hanging on every word of his.
Might I suggest she starts wearing a skull ring the same as his….. classy – not !!!!
Dear god….
“Classy” too right, if you’re a member of the ‘Adams Family’ ?
Does he? Really…?
Cindy would more appealing to the eye in a Burka and a Piece of Duct tape over her expansive Gob.
Counterpoint: I can’t agree with a payout.
She was an Uber driver who was passing and then tells her version of things.
She was not an authorised first responder or a trained person of any level.
We only have her version of events.
Lead on by Duncan Garner whose credibility is close to zero.
If ACC paid out for every claim like this it would get expensive and be a scammed.
Unlike physical injury , there is no way to verify.
Oh, I can’t sleep and so on.
Insurance companies look for pre-existing conditions and don’t pay out if present. It moves to a grey area with this situation.
ACC has already been extended – I think unwisely- to people who claim a sexual assault from 30 years ago.
A bridge too far IMO.
These are very intangible areas and perhaps be from the health budget, not ACC.
ACC is meant to be self funding.
ACC is a Tax just as much as National Insurance is in the UK.
If you increase payouts, where does that money come from(i.e. what tax source)?
She is already of pension age so gets that benefit.
This is a media lead story so will, by definition, be pumped up from maybe 20% of truth.
ACC took away the right to sue.
If there was no ACC, who would she sue for compensation?
Tarrant?
I guess I will be in the minority here but that is my take from the story presented more than 2 months after the event, by the media who have an interest in keeping the story alive.
More to the point, the payouts currently occurring are too high for ChCh; again IMO.
I respect her claimed action as a Good Samaritan but life is not always fair.
Any time there is a negative story to do with the Government, I am so amazed that i believe it. She had no idea what she was walking into. Naturally it is outside of her experience and traumatic.
I think there was some commentary after the Tarrant video, according to someone I know who watched it. Saying that if you were unaffected by it you were a low kind of person.
The uber driver was affected by it, she wasn’t just a bystander having a gawk.
Unfortunately, for Jill Keats, uber driver, she wasn’t working a shift when it happened so is not covered for workplace ACC. If she had been working her claim would apparently have been accepted by ACC. I guess when they cannot make the employer pay 80% of her weekly income for the first week, any claim is not considered as significantly.
People might remember that, and drive on by when they see. someone in distress.
“Uh-oh I’d better not stop, if I get damaged I won’t get any ACC because I’m not at work”
Imagine the name-calling that would ensue –