No crossing after student hit

A Tokoroa student who was hit by a car has been dealt a second blow of bad luck.

Rowan Blackburn has been pushing for a State Highway 1 pedestrian crossing connecting the town’s tertiary institutions with its town centre but the New Zealand Transport Agency claims it’s impossible.

It comes as Blackburn faces months of recovery from a shattered ankle. He was hit by a car in major roadworks while crossing State Highway 1 from Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology’s Ashworth St campus to get to the town’s main shopping centre in Leith Pl.

As one of over 200 students studying at the campus he said it was an accident waiting to happen as there is no safe place to cross.

‘‘People are crossing the highway all the time because on one side of the road you have got Toi Ohomai and Te Wa¯ nanga o Aotearoa in the same building,

Repco and Bunnings but all your food joints are over in Leith Pl,’’ he said.

‘‘For the whole highway there is only one crossing and that is all the way down by Mobil and the old East School [which closed in 2010].

‘‘They need a pedestrian crossing down here too. There is no safe way to get across apart from waiting for a gap in the traffic and darting for your life.’’

Life he knows he could have easily lost when he was hit by a car.

‘‘Because of the roadworks I didn’t realise the lanes had changed within a matter of days so when I stepped out I only looked left. I didn’t realise cars were also coming from my right,’’ he said.

‘‘I’d just put my leg out, that’s when the car hit me and I rolled onto the road.

‘‘I think it was as much of a shock to the driver as it was to me.’’

Blackburn said staff from Toi Ohomai rushed to his aid before he was taken to Rotorua Hospital.

He’s since had screws and plates inserted to hold his ankle in place which is expected to take months to heal.

‘‘It’s frustrating but if I could snap my fingers and make something happen it would be to get a pedestrian crossing down there.

‘‘This is a main highway which is getting busier and busier. This could have been worse.’’

But New Zealand Transport Agency acting Waikato system manager Rob Campbell said installing a crossing in the area was not possible.

‘‘The location is unsuitable due to the requirement for lanes allowing for traffic turning into and out of the central business district to slow down or accelerate as they turn off or onto the state highway, and the heavy vehicle stopping bays adjacent to Leith Pl,’’ he said.

Campbell said once the roadworks were completed, the new layout of the highway should however make things safer.

‘‘The reduction of lanes from two to one in each direction with medians and wider shoulders is expected to improve safety for everyone using the road,’’ he said.

Toi Ohomai regional lead Maree Kendrick said students have been advised to check carefully before crossing the road and she urged drivers to adhere to the speed limit.

A Te Wa¯ nanga o Aotearoa spokesperson echoed the sentiment but said such concerns had not been raised before.