Speed limit reduction investigated

A stretch of highway near Pareora does not need a speed reduction, despite concerns from locals over road safety, South Canterbury’s top cop says.

However, the NZ Transport Agency says it has met with concerned residents and is investigating possible solutions.

Its comments follow a horror three-car crash on Saturday that left one man dead and five others injured, including a 7-year-old girl who had critical injuries.

Pareora woman Barbara Bowen witnessed the aftermath of the crash.

She said locals had been trying for years to get the speed limit reduced to 80kmh or 70kmh along the stretch of road, which saw many people turning off onto the The Avenue to enter the Pareora township.

‘‘It’s lucky it was not between Monday and Friday as there’s always trucks along here that just keep going, they keep going back and forth.’’

She said there had been quite a few ‘‘near misses’’ along the road.

Mid-South Canterbury area commander Inspector Dave Gaskin said he did not support any move to reduce the speed limit from 100kmh.

There had been ‘‘a number’’ of crashes in the area, but that number had significantly reduced since changes were made to the road layout a few years ago, he said.

‘‘They knocked out the twisty, turny bits.’’

The issue was more to do with driver behaviour and motorists not sticking to the road rules and existing speed limit, Gaskin said.

‘‘I go down there all the time and I’ve never had a problem.’’

The cause of Saturday’s crash has yet to be determined.

Transport Agency senior traffic and safety engineer David Scarlet said the agency had recently met with Pareora residents about various concerns, focused on two of the state highway intersections adjacent to the township.

‘‘Our traffic and safety engin- eers have noted all the community concerns and are presently investigating solutions where any change is justified. The community will be advised of these plans in coming weeks.’’

In the past five years there had been three crashes on SH1 between the Pareora Ave and Sands Rd intersections – one in 2012 was a minor injury crash, the other two in 2012 and 2015 were non-injury crashes, he said.

Timaru District Council group manager infrastructure Ashley Harper declined to comment on whether the council had been contacted regarding a speed limit reduction in the area, or if the council had been in contact with NZTA about a speed limit reduction.

‘‘Our sympathies are extended to the family and friends of the deceased and those that have been injured in this tragic accident,’’ he said in an emailed statement.

‘‘As the scene of the accident is a state highway under the control of NZTA, and the NZ police are conducting enquiries into the circumstances of the accident, we will not be making any further public comment as it would be too insensitive to do so at this time.’’

Timaru District councillor Peter Burt said any speed limit changes would be a matter for NZTA, but he was happy to discuss any concerns people had.

Since he had been on the council, the matter had not been raised at a governance level, he said.

‘‘That’s not to say at a level below that, someone hasn’t made overtures to the council.’’