Dunedin accident proves a sad experience all round for driver

ON Thursday the vehicle I was driving towards the city on Thomas Burns St was hit by a truck and immobilised, partially blocking the road.

While I cannot fault the police officer who attended the scene for his actions and consideration, I was appalled at the time it took to deal with the 111 system in order to get him there.

On dialing, I found myself speaking to an operator in Auckland who was totally unfamiliar with Dunedin. Also, due to the site of the accident and the volume of fastmoving traffic, there was a possibility of further collisions but I could not impress on him the urgent need for action without going through a longwinded checklist. Fortunately, there were no collateral incidents, although I witnessed many close shaves as this road carries many large semi trailers with trailers mixing it with commuter traffic.

What did sadden me was that noone stopped to see if I needed assistance, or indeed slowed down at all until the police car arrived. Furthermore, many passing drivers saw fit to express their frustration at having to drive around my obviouslydisabled car by blasting their horns.

I hope they are among those reading this and feel a little embarrassed at their rudeness, and I hope they receive a better reception from their fellow citizens should they ever be in a similar situation. John Marshall

Dunedin

Election ‘majority’

JANE Edwards (ODT letters, 28.9.17) claims Sir John Key is incorrect in his claim that the majority vote went to National. He is correct. As NZ First has no stated position, its voters cannot be assumed to be voting for Labour, the Greens, or Labour Greens as a block or National or Act; the left or right if you like. They are voting to leave any decision in his hands. The only other party free to go either way was the Maori Party, although its stated preference was to align with Labour.

So we have Labour and the Greens with a total vote of 43% and National and Act with 46.5%. That is a clear majority. Of course Mr Peters can decide to coalesce with either side. That is the way of MMP, but he cannot claim to be going with the majority if he chooses the left side of the house.

A. R. MacLeod

Mosgiel