Near-misses spark truck driver’s fears
A Taranaki trucker is calling for a change in people’s attitudes to driving after capturing a number of near misses on his dashboard camera.
Tim Mcdonald has been driving his 48 tonne truck around the North Island for four years and says he witnesses dangerous driving daily.
‘‘I’ve been passed on blind corners, cut off at the end of passing lanes,’’ the 31-year-old said.
‘‘I’m just sick of it. Something’s got to change.’’
On November 14, Mcdonald’s dashcam captured the moment a blue Toyota overtook him on a double yellow-lined corner on Saddle Rd, Manawatu¯ .
Eight days earlier, a BMW overtook him at high speed on double yellow lines, narrowly missing a white ute travelling on the other side of the road.
Although both manoeuvres were illegal, Mcdonald has not notified police.
A Ministry of Transport report showed that in 2016, 75 people died and 850 were injured in crashes involving trucks.
It found 87 per cent of those who died were not truck occupants and the truck drivers were not at fault in 61 per cent of crashes.
Mcdonald said he thought it should be illegal for vehicles to overtake trucks unless on a passing lane.
‘‘If you pull out and you have a head-on collision in front of me, I’ve got to try and stop 48 tonnes smashing straight into you. ‘‘You’re dead. You’re gone. ‘‘I don’t want to have to live with the fact that it could have been me who killed someone because I crashed into them because I had nowhere to go.
‘‘I’m dreading the day I have to make the phone call to either my wife or my boss to say ‘Hey, I’ve just killed someone’.’’
Mcdonald bought the dash cam after complaints were made against him for overtaking slower road users on a passing lane.
‘‘I need it for my own he said.
Keith McGuire, area executive for the Road Transport Association, said many truck drivers had left the job after being involved in a crash but he did not think dash cams were a necessity in the industry.
‘‘Truck drivers are very aware of the vulnerability of other road evidence,’’ users in an accident with a heavy motor vehicle, and are constantly monitoring their surroundings to minimise this risk,’’ he said.
‘‘I don’t think that all trucks should necessarily have dash cams, although they certainly do provide very good evidence of who is at fault in an incident or accident.’’
His advice to road users was to not be distracted and not to take risks on the road.
‘‘Don’t attempt to push past a truck at the end of passing lanes, on the outside or, worse, on the inside. A large truck and trailer at highway speed needs space to merge and will cover its own length every second. That is it will cover about 100 metres in four seconds.
‘‘Being a few minutes late is far better than being ‘dead on time’.’’ The population of North Island ko¯kako is slowly making headway in North Taranaki despite large numbers of rats and other predators raiding nests.
Five new nests, containing four chicks and four eggs, were found during the latest monitoring survey at Parininihi, north of New Plymouth, Tiaki Te Mauri o Parininihi Trust project manager Conrad O’Carroll said.
The possible eight new additions could boost the number of birds above the 45 ko¯kako released by the Nga¯ ti Tama iwi led trust on the 2000-hectare inland and coastal block, near Mt Messenger, during the past year.
‘‘Two of the chicks were too big to band which will mean they will leave the nest in the next week at nine to 10 days old, ‘‘ O’Carroll said.
One female bird, Parirau, had laid four eggs this year, equalling the same number she laid last season, and was the only ko¯ kako to have done so from the five nests which were being monitored, he said.
In March, violent storms destroyed a nest of four eggs after the summer survey found a total of 13 nests and 37 eggs.
It takes about a month for the chicks to fledge after they have gone through to the incubation stage of around 18 days.
The chicks are leg banded after two weeks to identify them during their life span.
North Island ko¯kako have a blue wattle, which distinguishes them from the South Island ko¯kako which have an orange wattle.
‘‘The discovery of four eggs in one nest by the same bird which produced four eggs last year was a significant development,’’ O’Carroll said.
The overall success to date had been tempered by the high number of predators, such as rats and stoats, being trapped by the trust.
‘‘Rats, stoats and falcons are still a real problem and we are still catching high numbers of rats,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s a real challenge to get on top of them especially as the season has been warm and the forest has had a very productive fruiting which helped the pests to thrive.
‘‘Our efforts are proving successful in releasing ko¯ kako into the block over the past year but we have had a lot of predation and storms to hinder us.
‘‘Controlling the predators has been our biggest success.
‘‘The dawn chorus is just awesome now when we hear, not just kokako, but a whole range of birds.’’
More releases of ko¯kako to Parininihi from Pureora Forest are planned to take place in early 2019, he said.
Ko¯kako were also released by East Taranaki Environment Trust during the winter.
Nest monitoring had not started but three pairs and four individual birds were monitored in October, chief executive Brent Woodhead said.
The breeding season lasts from November to February.