Gail Ives, a physical education teacher who spent 39 years at Wellington Girls' College, died Monday in a Los Angeles hospital after being struck by a car while out running two weeks earlier. She and her husband, Richard, were two months into a planned six-month trip around the world to attend major sporting events when the collision happened, and she was unable to recover from her injuries.
According to a Stuff report relayed by Radio Tarana, Ives died on Monday after two weeks of hospital treatment following the crash. As 1News reports, the Wellington Girls' College community described her as a much-loved colleague, teacher and friend, with former students, parents and staff paying tribute in the wake of her death. A statement from the college, shared by Wellington Alive, noted that Richard called the school her first home.
A 39-Year Career That Began as a Student
Ives was herself a former student of Wellington Girls' College before returning to teach in its health and PE department for nearly four decades, per 1News. Former students taught by her in the late 1980s remembered her starting out as a new graduate named Miss Heather, according to the New Zealand Herald, illustrating just how many generations of Wellington families passed through her classroom. A former colleague described her, per 1News, as a dedicated teacher with the most positive outlook on life.
The college said it would share details of a service for Ives at a later date, and has set up a dedicated email inbox to collect stories and tributes from former students to pass along to her surviving family, including Richard, her son Ben and her mother, Margaret, per the Wellington Alive report.
A Standout Career on the Cricket Pitch
Before and during her early teaching years, Ives, née Heather, was a prominent representative cricketer for Wellington. According to Cricket Wellington, she played 28 two-day matches for the province between 1982 and 1991, scoring 644 runs — including an innings of 102 not out against Canterbury — and taking 54 wickets as a right-handed batter and off-spin bowler. At club level, she scored more than 3,000 runs and took over 150 wickets for the Onslow Cricket Club through the 1980s and 1990s, the same club where her father, Bruce Heather, was a Life Member, the organization's records show.
Her contributions extended into coaching as well. College Sport Wellington records show she was named regional Coach of the Year in 2001 for her work coaching both cricket and soccer at Wellington Girls' College, alongside her teaching duties.
The Risks Facing Runners on LA Streets
Details of the crash itself, including the neighborhood where it occurred, whether the driver remained at the scene, and whether any charges have been filed, have not been disclosed in reporting so far. What is clear is that Ives's death adds to a grim pattern on Los Angeles streets. Traffic collisions killed 290 people in the City of Los Angeles in 2025, with more than 150 of those victims being pedestrians, marking the third consecutive year that traffic fatalities have outnumbered homicides in the city, Hoodline has reported.
Countywide, the toll is similarly steep: Los Angeles County recorded 175 pedestrian deaths out of 526 total traffic fatalities in 2025, according to CHP Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System data cited by Hoodline. Research from UC Berkeley's SafeTREC, also reported by Hoodline, found that roughly 75% of pedestrian fatalities across California occur during evening and nighttime hours between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., underscoring how visibility remains a persistent hazard for people on foot or out for a run.
For now, Wellington is left to mourn a teacher and athlete whose ties to the city ran across nearly four decades of classrooms, sports fields and cricket pitches. The tributes flowing in describe a woman who shaped generations of students at the school she once attended herself, before her final trip abroad was cut short an ocean away from home.
