Slow progress on SH6

Lower speed limits will be considered for the notorious stretch of highway from Queenstown through to Five Rivers, but passing lanes are on the back burner.

There have been three deaths in as many months on the section of State Highway 6, and 209 crashes in six years.

Tourist buses, rental cars, Queenstown commuters, Southland contractors and locals jostle for position on a route where the number of road users doubles to about 3500 a day in summer.

Regular users have urged the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) and ministers of transport and tourism to make safety changes.

Tour bus driver Kate Fogarty says that on a daily basis she sees motorists on the road from Queenstown to Milford Sound passing on yellow lines, driving too fast and too slow.

She wrote to Transport Minister Phil Twyford and Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis calling for passing lanes.

She received an acknowledgement of her email but no further communication.

Kingston-based Wilson Contractors manager Athol Elliot backs her call. His drivers were on the road every day carrying gravel from Southland quarries to Queenstown and saw shocking driving daily ‘‘and not just by tourists’’.

He is pushing for changes on the windy Devil’s Staircase section.

Over 2018 the NZTA installed rumble strips, improved signage and barriers at high-risk spots along the road.

NZTA senior safety engineer Roy Johnston said the agency was developing a national speed management plan focusing on the top 10 per cent risk areas.

The Otago/Southland area would be considered in 2019.

The road, which has a 100kmh speed limit, did not meet the threshold of 4000 vehicles per day for passing lanes.

‘‘Passing lanes or slow vehicle bays may be considered during development of the next National Land Transport Plan,’’ Johnston said.

Some resealing work would start during summer including one site close to the Kawarau Falls Bridge, near Queenstown. Six sites would be levelled between the bridge and Kingston, he said.

For Fogarty, any change could be the difference between a life or death situation.

She was the first on the scene of a recent crash and found herself opening the door thinking ‘‘what am I going to find?’’

It was a man and his 2-year-old daughter. Both were uninjured.

‘‘One day there will be a dead body,’’ she said.

‘‘One day there will be a dead body.’’ Tour bus driver Kate Fogarty