Double fatal forces NZTA rethink
A wire rope median barrier will be installed on a stretch of the Hawke’s Bay Expressway where two men died in a head-on crash.
The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA), which is part way through a large project making safety improvements to the road, had not originally intended to erect a median barrier on the stretch where the crash occurred.
It is now looking to install a barrier early next year.
The crash occurred on the expressway just north of the Kennedy Road overpass about 1.35pm on Friday. The northbound car being driven by Tony Anderson, 75, appears to have crossed the centre line and collided with a southbound car being driven by Pat O’Brien, 38. Both men died at the scene.
The crash occurred on a 500-metre stretch between the overpass and a large roundabout with Taradale Rd that does not have a median barrier.
Long stretches of median barrier have been erected on the expressway to the north and south of the crash site as part of a $36 million NZTA improvement programme that began last year.
Its aim was ‘‘to prevent people from being killed and injured on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway between Bay View and Pakipaki’’.
Yesterday, NZTA senior project manager Rob Partridge said median barriers were due to be installed south of the crash site.
‘‘An initial decision had been made not to put a median barrier in the section of the road where the crash occurred, as it was generally slower and the section was quite short between the bridge and roundabout.
‘‘However, following the fatal crash we are now looking to install median barriers at this section early next year.’’
Senior Sergeant Dan Foley, a road policing prevention manager in the Eastern District, said the wire rope median barriers erected on the expressway so far had already saved lives.
He welcomed the news that this section was to have one installed. ‘‘There’s no question they work.’’