Roundabout dangers ever present for cyclists

Blenheim’s roundabouts continue to be dangerous territory for cyclists with seven crashes reported this year, already up on last year.

While none of the crashes were fatal, the roundabouts between Alabama Rd and Weld St, and Maxwell St and Seymour St have been identified as areas of concern. Tasman district road policing teams acting Senior Sergeant Barrie Greenall said roundabouts were an ongoing problem for cyclists. ‘‘There are instances of motorists not checking enough and not seeing cyclists on the roundabouts, we are seeing an increase of that.’’ He said distraction and inattention were the main causes but also a blind spot in the design of newer cars.

Marlborough Community Constable Russ Smith said drivers could miss cyclists completely. ‘‘It is often determined that the driver waiting at the roundabout failed to see the cyclist completely, and the consequence is that the cyclist is less protected and they quite often come up second best.’’

The Marlborough District Council is looking at options to improve safety on the Alabamaweld roundabout, near Redwoodtown Countdown.

Marlborough Roads journey manager Steve Murrin said 40 per cent of cyclist accidents occurred at roundabouts. The council wanted to reduce approach speeds for cars entering the Alabama-weld roundabout.

For example, a raised crossing meant drivers had to slow right down, Murrin said.

A cyclist was injured on the corner of Old Renwick Rd and Jacksons Rd early on Wednesday morning. A police spokesperson said a patient with moderate injuries was treated at the scene.

Murrin said overall crash data in Marlborough had been fairly static for the past three or four years but there had been a small increase in minor incidents.

‘‘Recent data did show a slight trend downwards of injury and fatal, death and serious injury crashes but there was a slight increase in minor crashes on the local roads,’’ Murrin said.

There were 67 minor incidents reported on Marlborough roads last year, compared with 46 in 2009. He said the increase in minor incidents could also be due to an increase in reporting. Since 2016, it had been a requirement that police report on every crash they attended.

Smith said attending minor and non-injury crashes were a ‘‘day-to-day’’ thing for police but they did not attend every incident. ‘‘If people just want to exchange insurance details and deal with it through insurance companies, that’s an OK thing.’’

Greenall said a decrease in crashes was welcome.