Grey Power ‘foretold’ crossing danger
Pedestrian’s death angers group after years of concerns
Horowhenua Grey Power foretold of serious injury or death years before a resident was killed crossing the road in Levin last week, and had been planning protest action.
Grey Power said it sent several submissions to authorities raising concerns about the dangers of crossing the road, given Horowhenua’s high population of elderly residents.
Horowhenua Grey Power president Terry Hemmingsen said the organisation had complained in letters to Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Authority and Horowhenua District Council about the situation.
While the exact details of the accident were yet to be released, the dead person was believed to be elderly and using a walking frame to cross Oxford St, a section of the State Highway 1 network.
Grey Power road safety committee chairwoman Dianne Brown said members had been planning a protest for months, by walking back and forth across the same Oxford St traffic light crossing to bring attention to the issue.
Hemmingsen was “ropeable” to learn someone had been killed while crossing the road.
“We foretold there would be serious injury or death. I am absolutely ropeable. This is a tragedy,” he said.
He said the “phasing” of the pedestrian
crossing at the traffic lights didn’t provide enough time for elderly residents to cross the street.
“There is insufficient time for people with walkers or using mobility scooters to cross the street.
“Our seniors make up 25 per cent of the population in this district. We know that elderly people are more likely to be slower in crossing the road . . . every day there are near misses.”
Hemmingsen said their concerns had been constantly ignored.
“For the last three years we have been asking for changes to that pedestrian crossing in Oxford Street,” he said.
“There will be a ringing of hands and a pointing of fingers, but the reality is unless we highlight it and push it nothing is going to be done.”
It used to be that there was no such thing as a traffic jam in Levin. Now,
Oxford St is one of the most congested in New Zealand, as the region sweats on an alternate State Highway bypass.
Grey Power had suggested an alternate system called a Barnes Dance, where lights in all directions turned red for a time, allowing pedestrians to cross the street at any angle during that time.
Hemmingsen said the Barnes Dance system was already in use in other intersections in New Zealand, like Auckland, Taupo¯ and Lower Hutt.
The Barnes Dance, or Barnes Shuffle, was named after a US traffic engineer Henry A Barnes.
It is a street-crossing system that stops traffic in all directions at the same time. The system was first used in Kansas City and Vancouver in the late 1940s. It was then adopted in other cities, like Denver, Colorado, New York, Santiago, Baltimore,
Maryland, and Washington DC.
Barnes, who had been a traffic commissioner, said he did not invent the concept, but he had promoted its use widely.
The phrase originated from a newspaper report that said: “Barnes has made people so happy, they’re dancing in the street.”
In 2019, Levin resident John Wysocki contacted Horowhenua Chronicle with the suggestion that a Barnes Dance was the solution for the traffic issues on Levin’s busiest street.
“It’s the only way to fix it,” he said in an article at the time.
“There are just so many more cars and heavy traffic going through the middle of Levin now. I would like to see something.
“I thought about getting a petition started, to sow the seed.”
There have been several incidents of pedestrians being hit by vehicles in Levin in recent years. In November last year a person required hospital treatment after being hit by a car on Oxford St.
In 2019 a pedestrian was taken to hospital after being run over by a car in Bath St, near New World supermarket.
In 2014 an elderly woman was killed after being hit by a light truck while walking along Bath St.
In 2013 a pedestrian died after being hit by a taxi on Hokio Beach Rd early one morning.
In 2009, a pedestrian died on SH1 in Levin after being hit by a car in the early hours.