Days are numbered for notorious road
Dying to Get There tells stories from a dangerous stretch of State Highway 3. Leighton Keith reports.
Road policing manager Robbie O’Keefe has seen plans to improve Taranaki’s killer stretch of State Highway 3 and is confident its days of terror are numbered.
‘‘They are draft plans and I’m not sure if anything has been finalised yet,’’ he warns.
‘‘But it’s going to make a huge difference in the reduction of serious crashes and fatalities on that stretch of road.’’
Once described by police as a ‘‘killing field’’, the section of SH3 between New Plymouth and Waitara is known as an unforgiving stretch of injury and death.
The 12 kilometre stretch includes 12 uncontrolled intersections, three of which make the country’s 100 most dangerous.
A mish-mash of 100kmh and 80kmh speed limits, it is Taranaki’s busiest stretch of highway on which 12 people have died in the last decade and countless others have been seriously injured.
For decades there have been calls to fix the road and draft proposals from the New Zealand Transport Agency now include realigning at least one intersection and building roundabouts at other problem spots.
‘‘There are a number of roundabouts proposed, being Princess St, realignment of Waitara Rd and Tate Rd, the 3A turn-off becomes a roundabout as well,’’ O’Keefe says of changes that would be welcomed by police.
‘‘We have already seen, since the 80kmh speed limit was brought in, a reduction in the number of serious crashes and fatal crashes there and the further enhancement of these safety initiatives will make a big difference.’’
O’Keefe is painfully aware there are too many people dying on the highway right now and something needs to change.
‘‘It’s horrific for the community and for the families involved. Each of these crashes have separate faults and have been investigated accordingly.’’
While the highway was considered dangerous, O’Keefe said driving faults contributed to the crashes.
‘‘It’s like any time any of us hop into a motor vehicle we just have to be vigilant. We have to watch out for the person in front, at the side of us, behind us, we have to drive to the conditions. Just because there’s a 80kmh speed limit on that road, if the weather conditions dictate you drive at 60kmh, you drive at 60 kmh. We just have to be careful.’’
He said attending fatal and serious injury crashes could be extremely taxing on all emergency services personnel and was a job nobody wanted.
‘‘We can get all the training you like but until you actually attend one yourself and deal with the victim, whether they are deceased or seriously injured, it does take its toll.’’