The West Coast's deadly roads: One-lane bridges, narrow roads, inexperienced drivers

Friday, 30 April 2021

Fred and Kath Campbell lost their son Tom when he died in a crash on the West Coast while heading towards Queenstown. (First published April 30, 2021)

Per capita, the West Coast’s roads are the deadliest in the country. What can be done about this, especially in light of the Government's goal of no road deaths by 2030? JOANNE NAISH reports.

For Fred and Kath Campbell, life has never been the same since the police came knocking on their door. Their precious 27-year-old son was dead after a crash on a notorious one-lane bridge on the West Coast’s Haast Highway in June 2017.

Tom Campbell was a talented snow groomer and had just returned home from working in Finland. He was heading down to his dream job at Cardrona, near Wānaka, when he hit the edge of the Maimai Creek bridge on State Highway 6. His car flipped upside-down into the creek below. Nothing could be done to save him.

Lonely Planet describes the drive down the West Coast as one of the top 10 coastal drives in the world. But per capita, it also has the worst safety record of any region in New Zealand.

Campbell’s was one of 27 fatal crashes on the West Coast in the four years between 2016 and 2020. There were also 156 serious injury crashes during the same period.

**READ MORE:

The one-lane bridge at Maimai Creek in South Westland, pictured on the day Tom Campbell was killed, showing the orange plastic netting on one side of the bridge after a crash six months earlier.

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Cardrona snow groomer and skier Tom Campbell died in a crash on the West Coast in 2017.

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Those are not just numbers and statistics – behind every crash there are lives lost, heartache and grief.

The Campbells are still waiting for a coroner’s report, nearly four years after their son’s death, but police have told them the crash was most likely caused by sun strike. Fox Glacier chief fire officer John Sullivan earlier said it was the third crash on the Maimai Creek bridge in only 15 months.

“It's quite a notorious little spot … because [motorists] come down a hill onto this one-lane bridge and you're looking straight into the setting sun.”

The wooden rails had been broken in another crash six months before, and the only barrier left was some orange plastic netting. After Campbell’s death, the wooden rails were replaced with steel guardrails, and bigger signs warning about the oncoming bridge were erected.

Ohakune lad Tom Campbell was known in the skiing fraternity for building ski jumps.

Fred Campbell believes better signage could have saved his son’s life.

A group of tourists who saw the crash said Tom Campbell didn’t brake or deviate. He went down the hill and crashed into the concrete nub at the start of the bridge. It was like he hadn't seen the bridge at all.

“We hope he was killed instantly and didn’t suffer, but if it was him going over the edge and landing in the creek that killed him then someone is extremely negligent,” Fred Campbell says.

“We don’t want anyone else to go through what we have. You see the police knocking on the door in TV shows, but until you experience it yourself you don’t know what hell it is.”

Punakaiki will receive a new visitor centre.

The Campbells drove from Picton to Wānaka recently and counted 50 one-lane bridges. According to Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), only two bridges on the West Coast still have wooden guardrails.

Kath Campbell is grateful her son had spent his final month with them in Ohakune before heading to his new job at Cardrona.

“He was only 27, but he packed a whole bunch in. He lived a life people dream to live.”

Tom Campbell built jumps for the Jossi Wells Invitational at Cardrona. A year after his death, the family organised the Tom Campbell Memorial Big Air competition, which has become an annual event.

Tom had followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a snow groomer at Turoa on Mt Ruapehu. He worked in the United States and Canada and then worked for six seasons at Cardrona, eventually becoming the head park driver.

“Tom first strapped a set of wee skis on at 18 months and took to it like a duck to water.

“He was a divine son, fun-loving, exceptionally passionate about what he did, and thrived to be the best in the world.”

Police officer Paul Gurney has attended hundreds of crashes during his time as Haast’s sole charge officer, including Tom’s.

“I’m sure if you talk to any mechanic in Fox Glacier to Haast they will have fixed hundreds of cars where the driver has hit the front left tyre or bumper on a single-lane bridge. People misjudge them.”

Less than 1 per cent of New Zealand’s population lives on the West Coast, but the region has 8 per cent of the country’s state highways and 48 one-lane bridges. Its primary industries rely on the 600 kilometres of roads to get coal, milk and timber off the Coast.

Tourism’s contribution to the West Coast’s GDP is significant compared to the rest of New Zealand, climbing to 14.9 per cent in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

NZTA data shows 48 crashes happened on one-lane bridges between 2015 and 2020 and in Westland alone, 40 per cent of all crashes involved overseas drivers.

The West Coast Regional Council's draft land transport plan, which is currently out for public consultation, sets out goals for improving the region’s roads over the next 10 years.

The plan says the key problem is the region’s ageing and insufficient roading network, which is increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather events, floods and slips.

Heavy vehicles are also having to drive on roads that are not designed for them – they're too narrow and winding.

“There are pockets of infrastructure across the region that are no longer fit for purpose,” the plan says.

Achieving the Government’s goal of having no-one killed or seriously injured in road crashes will be “quite challenging” and the level of under-reporting of crashes in the region is high.

The social cost of the West Coast’s 183 fatal and serious injury crashes between 2016-20 was $219.76m. The figure does not include the cost of the 464 minor injury crashes that happened during that time.

Police at the scene where Polish woman Iwona Porawska-Hyjek died when the van she was travelling in crashed on a bend on State Highway 6 on the West Coast in 2017.

The most common factor in more than half of the serious crashes was that they happened on bends, where drivers lose control and hit oncoming traffic head-on.

Grey district councillor Peter Haddock is the longest-serving member of the West Coast Regional Transport Committee, which meets annually with NZTA.

“I’ve been on it for 14 years and I bring [road safety] up at every meeting. It is unacceptable that in today’s age that trucks have to cross the centre line to get around corners and hope with the grace of God they don't meet someone coming the other way.”

The committee has identified 14 pinch points along the West Coast, where they say large trucks and tankers cannot get around corners without crossing the centre line. It has been lobbying NZTA for improvements, many of which Haddock believes can be done with only “a bit of a trim”.

“We need more investment by the Government. Our roads are not fit for purpose,” he says.

Greymouth man Barrie Brown, now 84, spent his life working for the Ministry of Works until it was disestablished in the 1980s, and says the West Coast’s roads are “substandard” for today’s traffic.

“We are vulnerable. You need a defensive driver’s course before you drive on our roads. The speed limit should be 90kmh.”

NZTA senior network manager Colin Hey says all of the pinch points identified by the committee can be negotiated without crossing the centre line – as long as they’re driven at the appropriate speed and with care.

Many cannot be widened because they run through national parks.

The agency welcomes feedback but needs to balance “local opinions” with crash data, traffic volumes and funding constraints, he says. Most of the West Coast’s highways are deemed low to medium risk.

Hey says NZTA spends about $17m every year on maintaining West Coast highways and bridges, and another $10m a year on emergency works.

It will seek feedback from West Coasters about reducing the speed limit in six areas to prevent road tragedies.

“Safe speed limits help to minimise the severity of crashes when they occur. Lower speeds give road users a second chance to either avoid a crash or at least walk away from one if it happens,” Hey says.

Senior Sergeant Mark Kirkwood says most of the crashes in New Zealand are preventable.

“You go in to work for the day, and you know there is a reasonably good chance you could go to a car crash.”

Police don’t call them accidents because there is always “someone or something at fault”, he says.

“If people saw what we see they wouldn't even think about drink-driving, not wearing a seatbelt, checking a cellphone while driving or speeding.”