Contact
Newsagent
Login
Responsibility for Otaihanga road deaths – an open letter to the NZ Transport Agency
To Jenny Chetwynd
Regional Director, NZ Transport Agency
As one of the people who made the decision to pull the funding to install wire median barriers along SH1 between Otaihanga and Waikanae, I hold you responsible for the latest addition to the death toll on this stretch of road. I also hold you accountable for the lost time hundreds of commuters experienced due to the lack of an alternative western link route for them to use.
Again, you are one of the ‘team’ who is responsible for axing this proposal.
You and transport minister Steven Joyce are responsible for wasting taxpayers’ time, money and now lives.
You stated that ‘only high-priority projects will be funded’. What exactly do you consider ‘high-priority’? How many lives must be lost before you realise upgrades to state highway one along this stretch are desperately needed along with a western link local road?
At a meeting with Kapiti coasters, Steven Joyce said that he would not stop the ridiculous expressway proposal which, it is becoming increasingly obvious, is flawed on so many levels, because ‘we’ve come too far to turn back’.
How much more money has to be wasted before you realise even your upper limit of $550 million was conservative? How many more lives must be lost before you and your ‘team’ realise the only sensible solution is to upgrade SH1 and install a local western link road NOW.
Sincerely
Bianca Begovich
Save Kapiti
This letter was first published on October 1, one day after a head-on crash in which a woman was killed on SH1 north of the Otaihanga intersection. We are republishing it because of yesterday’s accident on the same stretch of road, in which two people were killed and five people were injured.
Read also
Road safety campaigner says: bureaucrats have blood on their hands
This section of road has been a “known” black spot for years. The alternative would be costing billion+. How much does it cost for individual motorists who know of the black spot to slow down and take a bit more care? No idea, but isn’t it more effective for drivers to be more cautious on the roads? Why do we keep blaming someone / something else for what we knowingly keep doing wrong?
The above letter is interesting and in my opinion correct. I am old enough to remember when we here in Auckland did not have a median barrrier down the center of our motorway. There were many head on accidents and so much so that a group of Auckland surgeons (the people who were having to deal with the carnage) got together and lobbied for the median barrier. Eventually it was installed and the serious fatalities and injuries stopped. There is no doubt there are people, both politicians and local body leaders, who have responsibility for this. They must act immediately – the lost lives rest with them.
The New Zealand Transport Agency would be better off using its money to reduce the slaughter on the Kapiti Highway rather than building an unnecessary flyover at the Basin Reserve.
Seems an easy choice doesn’t it? Putting public safety first instead of disfiguring our urban landscape so suits can get to the airport a few minutes earlier.
The Transport Agency’s culpability for refusing to build a median barrier after the September fatality is compounded by the two Christmas deaths.
The Agency talks about affordability and priorities. But the median barrier is more affordable and should be given a higher priority than the hideous and unnecessary flyover, which isn’t going to save any lives.
Sridhar, I agree that motorists should be held responsible for their own mistakes. But NZTA has know about this ‘black spot’ for years. It is their job to upgrade roads and make them as safe for motorists as possible. Beyond that, motorists are responsible for their own driving.
And the reason there is no funding for the median barriers? Because NZTA has decided that installing another massive motorway at the beach in Kapiti is a better ‘solution’ to addressing the head-on collisions.
@ Bianca. You didn’t get the point I was making. True NZTA has made mistakes in not putting up barriers. But how much will barriers prevent accidents? Only up to a point. Remember, the barrier was responsible for slicing a motorcyclist in half. So one form of dying being replaced by another form.
I have driven that stretch so many times as well, but never got in trouble because I drive slower than the speed limit because a) I know it is an accident prone zone, b) NZTA has not done anything about it, c) slowing down gives me better control of my car. Which means NZTA’s inaction does not affect me in any way. Instead it affects other motorists who get impatient at my slower than limit speed. Yeah! I get to my destination 10 mins late but so what?
Impatience, temper, wrong judgement, ignorance……….i.e. Drive to conditions – which is not just related to weather but also road designs, accident prone zone, known black spots. A median barrier is just one of them. The median barrier can be tackled by NZTA but everything else needs to be tackled by motorists. Safety is a two way approach.