Holiday weekend horrors haunt cops
Waikato’s road policing manager Inspector Jeff Penno is scared.
For Queen’s Birthday weekend he is deploying more cops than ever before in his
20-year career.
His fear stems from a lot of people keen to drive post lockdown, the number of people travelling and unfavourable weekend weather conditions.
And he’s not the only one who’s worried.
Driving around the Waikato region, Senior Constable Tony Gardner is reminded of crash sites he has attended.
After spending 20 years in Highway Patrol, he has seen his fair share of road carnage, the images burnt into his memory.
‘‘Every road you travel down it’s ‘remember that crash there, that guy there’.
‘‘You can’t drive round Waikato without passing the scene of a crash and you remember what you saw every time you drive down the road.’’
Already in 2020, 15 people have died on Waikato roads, with some roads more dangerous than others.
The top three priority roads for police in Waikato are State Highway 25/25A, SH1/SH29 from the South of Waikato expressway to the SH29/27 intersection and
SH29/SH27/SH24, known as the Matamata Kaimai Range triangle.
Gardner said whenever the call came through to attend any crash, his heart sank.
‘‘As you’re heading towards it, you’re planning what to do.’’
Of the horrific scenestwo stick out.
One involved a motorcyclist who was going through roadworks and a truck reversed back into the driver.
‘‘[They] couldn’t get out of the way and [they] knew what was coming for a split second and couldn’t stop it.’’
Another was a crash scene where a car was hit head on and two people in the car were cut in half.
‘‘The whole front section was missing, they were still seated in their seats, but neither of them had legs.’’
If people obeyed three simple rules, wearing seatbelts, not speeding and not being distracted, it would make a difference to the crash rate, Gardner said.
He didn’t think people thought about the impact crashes had on police when they broke the rules.
‘‘I don’t think they see us as a person.
‘‘ ‘That’s the cops, they are doing their job’, but I’m pretty sure they don’t stop and think that person is going through what they are going through, those moments will always be with them.’’
He knew of people who had to take stress leave after suffering post-traumatic stress disorder from attending crashes.
‘‘You can’t unsee what you’ve seen.’’
AA road safety spokesman Dylan Thomsen said a common factor on roads with high crashes was the traffic volume.
Some New Zealand roads were built for lower traffic volumes, so they were not fit for the volume they now carried.
‘‘A lot of State Highway 1 in New Zealand was built at a time when we used to allow houses to be built along the highway, with driveways coming out on it.
‘‘If they don’t have a median barrier, the number of severe crashes start to really jump up.’’
Putting a median barrier down the middle could see a reduction in crashes of 60-90 per cent, Thomsen said.
Driver distraction and fatigue were also two big contributing factors to crashes.
‘‘There’s a lot [of crashes] where it’s just a pretty ordinary every day driver going about their business trying to do everything right, and they might get a bit distracted by something.
‘‘When roads get busier, the margin for error gets reduced.’’
Waikato will see more cops out on the road during Queen’s Birthday weekend
Waikato’s road policing manager Inspector Jeff Penno