Deadly highway between Hamilton and Tauranga will kill again, locals say
Monday, 27 January 2020
A controversial decision to scrap the Waikato Expressway extension to Piarere is destined to cost lives, a resident on the notorious stretch of highway says.
Andrew Lennox has lived on State Highway 1 near the intersection of Hydro Rd in Karapiro for 13 years and says a relative died in a crash in the same spot as a fatal collision at the weekend.
Saturday's smash near his driveway at 6.20am left a 64-year-old man dead, Senior Sergeant Wayne Shanks said.
According to Lennox, the road is littered with fatal crash spots and he described it as 'carnage'. Authorities need to extend the Waikato Expressway to put a stop to it, he said.
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The double-lane carriageway was initially meant to stretch to Piarere, a major intersection where traffic turns off to Tauranga. But the Labour-led coalition scrapped it in 2018.
Lennox said this decision was costing lives.
'I drive this road every day and it's just crash after crash after crash.
'How many times does it have to happen? How many people have to die?'
And it's 'getting busier every day'.
The road between Cambridge and Piarere carries around 18,000 vehicles per day. Following completion of the Waikato Expressway, traffic volumes are expected to increase up to 20,000 with many opting to go on the expressway to Hobbiton rather than SH27.
A Labour spokesman said the Transport Agency was better placed to answer questions about the expressway as they made the operational decisions, including what gets built when.
It was a deadly Auckland Anniversary weekend on the country's roads.
Five people were killed on the roads from Kaitaia in the north to Gore in the south with two killed in separate crashes on the highway between Hamilton and Tauranga.
On Sunday afternoon two people died in a serious crash on State Highway 1 at Mataura in Gore.
Police were alerted to the single-vehicle crash around 5pm, a statement said. Two other people were also injured and taken to hospitals in Dunedin and Southland.
Earlier that day, around 6am, one person died when their car hit a tree in the Far North town of Kaitaia.
Police and two ambulances were called to the scene on Bank St. The sole occupant of the car died at the scene.
In Waikato, one person was killed after two vehicles crashed on SH29 between Piarere and Hinuera shortly before 2pm. Another person suffered serious injuries in the collision east of Hinuera Quarry.
Waikato road policing manager Inspector Jeff Penno said the deaths were an absolute tragedy.
He said it was too early to be able to identify the causes of the crashes but they were looking at fatigue for both of them, as they do with all crash investigations.
Penno encouraged people to share the driving if possible and make sure the driver is being responsible.
'If you are tired, you shouldn't be driving. Is it worth your life to keep going?
'It doesn't matter how good your vehicle is, how good the road is and how good the rules are.
'How alert and how up to the task of driving [are you], as the responsibility sits with you, the driver.'
So far this year 17 people have died in crashes on the roads, according to Ministry of Transport figures. Last year a total of 353 were killed.
During this year's official holiday period from December 23 to January 3 six people died in six crashes - three drivers, two passengers and a pedestrian. In the same period the year before nine people died, 69 were seriously injured and 325 people suffered minor injuries.
Investigations into the causes of this weekend's crashes were ongoing, police said.