Two crashes in three hours
The Northland Police Serious Crash Unit responded to two Mid North crashes in three hours on Saturday.
The first, at about 9.40am near the intersection of Mangatoa Rd and State Highway 12, west of Kaikohe, involved eight people, five of them children, in two cars. One of the children was flown by Northland Rescue helicopter to Starship children’s hospital in Auckland in a serious condition, while the Auckland Westpac Rescue helicopter flew another in a serious condition to Whanga¯rei Hospital.
The others were taken to Bay of Islands Hospital with various injuries.
Emergency services were called to the second, singlevehicle crash, near the intersection of Puketi Rd and State Highway 1 at Okaihau, at around 12.30pm. An Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust spokesman said a man in his 20s, believed to have been the sole occupant, was flown to Whanga¯rei Hospital in a serious condition, which later improved to moderate. Police said a truck driver who witnessed the crash called 111. The car was off the One person was flown to hospital in a serious condition after this single-car crash near Okaihau.
road and the person was found lying beside it.
Senior Sergeant Brian Swann said there had been numerous minor crashes on Saturday, which he largely put down to driver inattention and failing to drive to the conditions. There had not been an exceptional amount of rain, he added, but roads had been wetter than they had been for some time. “When I said I thought the Three Bridges thing was the thin edge of the wedge I had no idea how close I was to the truth,” Kerikeri man Peter Heath said last week.
“I hadn’t realised the petition was being enabled by the Labour-backed lobby group hell-bent on reducing the rural road speed limit to 80km/h.”
Mr Heath was referring to road safety group Movement, which is calling for “safer speed limits” on rural roads to reduce the road toll.
“Whilst we agree that 100 km/h is typically appropriate for motorways and expressways, we must move to adopt safer speed limits for our rural open roads. Such roads are not built for highspeed travel, and are the main source of New Zealand’s horrifying road toll,” spokesman Bevan Woodward said.
“The ultimate penalty for speeding is not a fine — it can be injury or worse. And more to the point, statistics show that pedestrians and cyclists, also road users, are suffering much higher rates of fatalities.
“Hence we fully support the police call for speed limits to be reduced to match the road conditions.”
He cited the 80km/h zone on State Highway 1 through Dome Valley, north of Auckland, as demonstrating how a safer speed limit immediately resulted in significant saving of lives.
“There is clear evidence that reduced rural and urban speed limits significantly improve road safety, while having little impact on travel times. However, there is a reluctance to reduce speed limits, and (last) year’s road toll is a stark reminder that leadership from our decisionmakers is urgently required to save lives.”
Northland MP Matt King flatly rejected any suggestion his party, or his support for the Kawakawa petition, were linked with any broader campaign to cut road speeds.