Family pleads for help to find Trinity's killer

Family members said Trinity was a fun-loving water baby who loved butterflies. (Qld Police)
Relatives of a murdered eight-year-old girl in Bundaberg in southern Queensland have issued a public plea for information about the crime.
Police say they believe Trinity Leigh Bates, known as Trinny, was abducted from her home and her body found in a nearby drain.
As floral tributes piled up outside the girl's home this morning, Queensland Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson said the force was pouring "every possible resource" into the hunt for the killer.
The site remains cordoned off and extra police have arrived to help with the investigation.
Grandmother Kerri Hanlon and cousin Suzie Cavallaro spoke of their loss, describing Trinity as a fun-loving water baby who loved butterflies.
"She was one of the most photogenic creatures you'd ever find - if there was a camera, she'd be there," Ms Cavallaro said.
Mrs Hanlon says someone must know something.
"If anybody's out there that saw anything or thought they saw anything or think they know something, they need to tell somebody," Mrs Hanlon said.
Residents say they are living in fear after the murder.
One woman said she cannot believe it happened in her neighbourhood.
"I have a young girl of my own and now she's frightened - she's too frightened to walk to school by herself," she said.
Others are in shock.
"I lost a grandson to cancer but this is worse than that - this is horror," another resident said.
Local resident Caroline says she is shocked.
"I think for something to happen in a town like this is just unreal," she said.
Neighbour Jim says the community is now questioning itself.
"It does worry you that there's somebody like that around," he said.
Police are expected to give further details at a press conference later today.
The cause of death has yet to be determined.

Summary

Bundaberg which is located in southern Queensland, a place where people don't expect this kind of things to happen. A girl was recently murdered and left in nearby drain. The site of the incident were guarded by the police as further investigation will be carried out soon. Residents started to be aware of the situation and the children especially, became afraid to go out from their house. Some of the people still can't believe that there's murder in their town as they have been staying in such a peaceful place for years. However, the cause of the death has not yet been confirmed.


Critique,
Well, we should always be careful. Unexpected things can happen everywhere at any time.

Even in a place such where there's very tight security, a crime can happen.

Car size matters in safety, say experts
Philip King, Motoring editor From: The Australian February 23, 2010 12:00AM

A SMALL car would always come off second best in a collision with a heavier vehicle and it was more difficult to make them safe, experts agreed yesterday.

Just nine models on sale in NSW fall below the 975kg threshold for the transport levy and, with the exception of three Lotus sportscars, all are lightweight runabouts with a range of crash test results.

Two -- the Fiat 500 and Mazda 2 -- achieve the maximum five-star crash rating commonplace for larger vehicles.

Jack Haley, a technical specialist with the NRMA, which sponsors the New Car Assessment Program crash tests, said many drivers were more comfortable with small cars and manufacturers were now fitting sophisticated safety features, such as multiple airbags and electronic stability control.

Mr Haley said the aim of crash-test ratings was to help buyers make informed decisions.


"People normally buy a vehicle within a certain size range, and we try to steer them towards the safer vehicles in that range," he said.

He said smaller vehicles could be engineered to absorb crash energy effectively, but there was no dodging physics.

In multiple-vehicle collisions, weight played a role and occupants in a heavier car would be better off. "Mass has an effect," he said. "A car that's twice as heavy has twice the energy."

Stuart Newstead of the Monash University Accident Research Centre said that driving a car weighing less than a tonne -- much less than the fleet average of 1450kg -- meant you were automatically at a disadvantage.

"If you're in something light you're going to get hit by heavier things on average," he said.

Smaller cars were also more dangerous in single-vehicle crashes. "They have less room to absorb impact energy and inside the vehicle there's less survival space," he said.

Crash results gave a distorted picture, Dr Newstead said, because not all stars were equal.

"It's much harder to design a small vehicle that is ultra-safe," he said. "The NCAP ratings don't reflect that because their tests are independent of mass."

He said that as people were encouraged into smaller vehicles for environmental reasons, it was important to recognise that there was a safety trade-off.