Northland roads ‘treacherous’
A Northland crash involving a bicycle and a truck in which the 21-year-old cyclist lost his life was the latest in a string of fatalities involving trucks, according to a cycling safety advocate.
The crash happened on State Highway 1 on July 3. Police Inspector Wayne Ewers said a truck driver was at Towai, just north of Whangarei, when he thought he may have hit something.
He returned to the area and found the body of a 21-year-old local man who had died at the scene. Police notified the man’s next of kin and local kaumatua arrived to bless the scene.
Patrick Morgan of the Cyclist Action Network said six of the last eight cyclist fatalities had involved trucks, despite trucks making up only 6 per cent of all road traffic in NZ. A spate of 13 cycling fatalities in 2012 sparked a coronial inquiry in 2013 and prompted the NZTA to form a cycling safety panel to investigate the issue.
Their report recommended a cost-benefit analysis of compulsory side-under-run protection, which would prevent cyclists and pedestrians from slipping sideways underneath trucks, as well as collision detection sensors and extra cameras.
Three years on such measures remain voluntary.
Morgan said he was not seeking to place blame on anyone for the latest crash but it was a reminder that such safety measures, which are compulsory in Europe, are optional extras in NZ. ‘‘We can’t just rely on some businesses raising the standard.’’
Road Transport Forum chief executive Ken Shirley said such features would largely prevent the deaths of cyclists and pedestrians in urban areas rather than rural ones.
‘‘Northland’s roads are particularly treacherous. Many roads are quite narrow and winding, and of course the dedicated cycleways tend to be in the larger centres.’’
Morgan agreed that the design of New Zealand’s roads, particularly in rural areas, were not ‘‘for- giving of human mistakes’’. High on his wish-list for rural roads were a ‘‘decent shoulder’’ to the left of the road to give more room for cyclists in addition to alternate routes for those on bicycles.
Morgan said he felt great sympathy for the driver of the truck. ‘‘It devastates the drivers, sometimes they never drive again.’’ The matter will be referred to the coroner. A historic Northland church that was deconsecrated and sold to private owners as a result of a dwindling congregation is enjoying a second life.
St Francis Xavier Catholic Church, originally built in Kawakawa in 1875, was relocated to Uruti Bay near Russell in 2012 by Jo and Ross Blackman. The couple have now re-purposed it as a wedding venue called Russell Chapel on the Olive Grove’.
The heritage significance of the church building was recently reviewed by Heritage New Zealand following its relocation from its original site. The review confirmed its heritage importance, and its listing as a Category 2 historic place.
St Francis Xavier Church was used for more than 130 years during its time in Kawakawa and has historical significance reflecting European settlement in Northland in the mid-to-late 19th Century according to Heritage New Zealand’s Northland Manager, Bill Edwards.
It was once the religious and social focal point for a large population of Catholic Irish miners who worked in the local coal mines, and who had made Kawakawa their home.