Fatal crash looking very likely
A farmer is demanding action over a traffic accident blackspot after drivers smashed into his fence six times over the past year.
Roger Bent fears someone will die unless the road outside his Tokaora property, on SH45 west of Hawera, is sorted out.
Skid marks left on the verge after the latest prang on Friday show a car narrowly missed a power pole when it left the road and careened into the paddock.
A few months ago, another flew across the entry to an underpass and crashed in the paddock beyond it.
Bent, who spent $300 and much of Wednesday fixing the latest damage, said because nobody had been seriously hurt in the crashes, the black spot was not notable in accident statistics.
But he didn’t want to wait for a fatality. ’’I want to get the situation fixed before someone is killed.’’
He said he had talked to roading contractors and authorities over the years. ’’I tell them there’s a problem with the road and they look at me like I am an idiot,’’ he said.
The accidents happen on a sweeping bend with good visibility, but he suspected there could be an issue with the road itself.
The crashes happen to vehicles coming from both directions, with fences on both sides of the road regularly broken.
Often the first he knew about a crash was when he found the damaged fence the next morning.
‘‘Sometimes the police come, sometimes they don’t.’’
One day he watched a milk tanker slew from side to side down the hill and narrowly miss losing control.
‘‘I’ve given up counting how many times there have been crashes but it is dozens over the years,’’ he said.
‘‘At my stage in life you get over fixing fences all the time.’’
Ross I’Anson, highway manager with the NZ Transport Agency, said it was aware of the recent crashes and taking action.
‘‘Our contactor has met with the adjacent landowner and as a result we have already installed additional chevron signs on this stretch of road.’’