When to move over on country roads
June 1 was officially moving day for the country’s dairy industry. Around this time many dairy herds and sharemilkers move farms, and while most of the cows travel on trucks, a sizeable number are also walked along rural roads.
While the chance of drivers encountering livestock on the road at this time of year may be higher than usual, it’s something to be aware of year round.
It’s not just organised stock movements that drivers need to watch out for, wandering stock can be a significant problem in some areas, and can cause serious crashes.
What follows are some of the key rules for negotiating livestock when driving on rural roads.
As a Waka Kotahi official noted in a media statement: ‘‘Rural roads are not designed for high speeds. They can be windy, narrow, have loose metal, and you never know what is around the corner. Quad bikes, large farm vehicles, campervans, people towing boats and wandering stock are all common hazards on these roads.
‘‘Animals on highways present a significant safety risk for motorists and there is the potential for serious injury, and even fatal crashes, as a result.’’
That was Waikato system manager Rob Campbell around Christmas 2019. At that time police were receiving about 500 reports a year of stock on roads in eastern Waikato.
In June 2019 a motorcyclist had died after a collision with a cow about midnight on SH25 near Thames.
The Heavy Vehicle Road Code has some advice about how drivers should behave when they come across farm animals being driven on rural roads.
’’Farmers often use country roads to move stock between paddocks,’’ it said.
‘‘If there are animals on the road: slow down or pull over to the side of the road don’t sound your horn or make a noise that could frighten the animals follow any advice the farmer may give you.’’
The general Road Code has some advice about sharing the road with horses:
Slow down and pass carefully, giving the horse and rider plenty of room. Don’t sound your horn, rev your engine or pass at speed. If the horse and rider are on a bridge or narrow road, be very careful – slow down or stop. If the horse appears frightened, stop. At night, dip your headlights when approaching a horse. Avoid passing another vehicle near a horse. It also warned drivers that if they were not careful around horses, they could be charged with careless or dangerous driving.
The Land Transport (Road User) Rule 2004 said a road user must exercise due care towards a person moving animals on a road; or riding an animal on a road; and that person’s animals.
It also said anyone riding an animal on the road must keep it as far to the left as practicable, and on the road margin if reasonably adequate.
A person moving untethered animals from place to place along or across a road must exercise due care towards other road users, and must ensure that any disruption to traffic was minimised, the law said.
Councils across the country have bylaws setting out rules for droving farm animals along their roads.
The current Waikato district bylaw came into force last August. It said that within rural areas of the district livestock were moved using roads as part of the everyday operation of some farms.
Permits were needed to move stock along or across roads in urban areas, or on national, regional and arterial roads (generally controlled by Waka Kotahi), the bylaw said.
Stock movement on unsealed and sealed rural roads was allowed, with conditions that included no movement during darkness.
Adequate warning in front and behind the animals was needed. Warning methods included at least two of: flashing lights, flags, signs, workers with safety vests, and road cones. The warning needed to be clearly visible at least 170m from the animals.
People moving the animals had to take all reasonable and practical steps to allow vehicles to pass through the stock, and to remove excessive excrement from the road, the bylaw said.
Gore man David Harrington needed facial reconstruction surgery after the car he was driving collided with a cow on the road in August 2020. In August 2022 he talked to Waka Kotahi about the crash and his progress since, for a video about the dangers posed by wandering stock.
Senior Constable Simon Ballantyne said that in the previous 12 months police in the southern district had been called to 340 incidents of stock on the roads.
‘‘If you see stock on our roads, please call 111. It’s an emergency,’’ he said.