Call to reduce road’s speed
Fourteen crashes along a winding Putaruru road in 12 months has prompted a petition to see the speed limit reduced.
Over a dozen Domain Rd business owners and residents have signed Forest Freighters Limited owner Alf Williamson’s petition to see the limit dropped from 100 kilometres to at least 70km.
Williamson, who has been a resident in the road, off State Highway 1, south of Putaruru’s township, for 40 years, presented the petition to South Waikato District Council councillors on Thursday during their public business agenda meeting.
‘‘We are only 26 days into the new year and we have already had two cars leave the road. It has been an ongoing issue for quite a few years and we want to bring it to the council’s attention to do something about the speed limit,’’ he said.
He said part of the problem was people were now using the road to bypass Putaruru thanks to modern navigation tools but they were unfamiliar with the road and failed to adjust their speed when coming off the highway.
‘‘It’s an industrial area with a 100km speed limit. It has become a Worksafe problem as we have got to get our staff safely in and out of our properties,’’ he said.
‘‘Bring the speed limit down and we won’t have a problem.’’
Willcox Building Removals owners Arthur and Pauline Willcox, who have lived in the road for 50 years, said they feel the speed needs to be dropped to 50km as people will still speed at 70km.
Councillor Bill Machen said getting speed limits changed was hard but he was willing to look into it.
‘‘The Waikato Regional Council has been used as a trial for some speed limit restrictions and other safety issues and [last year] there were three areas selected in the South Waikato. Domain Rd was one of those but at the 11th hour it was dropped out of the proposal,’’ he said.
‘‘I will fire a note off and ask [to have it] reinstated in the business of the Regional Transport Committee and see if we can get something done because it is a dangerous bit of road.’’
Roading manager Gordon Naidoo said reducing the speed limit to 80km has been suggested in the South Waikato District Council’s soon to be released speed bylaw.