Rural intersection claims more lives
A British couple are dead after apparently running a stop sign and getting T-boned by a truck at a notorious Canterbury intersection.
The victims are thought to be tourists who arrived in New Zealand a week ago. The truck driver was traumatised, police said.
Police were called to the crash, at the intersection of Blakes Rd and Shands Rd near Prebbleton, about 5.45pm.
The intersection is one of the region’s most dangerous for serious crashes. It is due to be upgraded to a roundabout next year. There are two white crosses from previous fatal crashes.
The truck, carrying a load of steel, was headed south on Shands Rd. The couple were headed west on Blakes Rd.
Canterbury rural area commander Inspector Peter Cooper said the victims were believed to be a couple in their 60s. They had arrived in the city via Auckland. Both died in their rented Toyota. There were no other passengers.
Initial inquiries suggested the car pulled out in front of the truck, but this would be investigated by the Serious Crash Unit.
‘‘We’ve got some inquiries to do with the rental company just to ascertain who [the victims] are and we’ll try and let their next of kin know in England as soon as we can,’’ Cooper said. ‘‘This is a controlled intersection with a stop sign. There are a number of these in the Selwyn area and we want to go through, make sure we’ve got all the details . . . before we make any assumptions to the cause . . .
‘‘Selwyn’s notorious for its number of intersections and the cross-traffic issues that we have because of that,’’ Cooper said.
‘‘It’s a . . . timely and unfortunate reminder of how you have to be careful at intersections.’’
The Shands Rd and Blakes Rd intersection was ranked fifteenth most dangerous in Canterbury over the past five years, with one person killed and two seriously injured in three crashes in that time.
Where Shands Rd intersected Marshs Rd ranked the seventh most dangerous, though this would become part of the Southern Motorway extension.
Paul Lally, who lives next to the Shands-Blakes intersection, heard the crash and called emergency services. He said he had been out to a couple of fatal crashes at the intersection over the years, though the number of crashes had decreased since an 80kmh speed limit was introduced about three years ago, he said.
Tourists are over-represented in New Zealand crash statistics.
Johannes Appelman, then 52, killed Sally Rumble, her daughter Ella Summerfield and Ella’s friend Abi Hone, both 12, when he ran a stop sign near Rakaia on May 31,
2014 and T-boned their vehicle. He was disqualified from driving for 15 months and ordered to pay
$25,000 in emotional reparation to Rumble’s husband, Shane Summerfield.