Deadly road improves: NZTA pleased with Northland SH1 safety changes

Saturday, 23 January 2021

Lives are being saved by safety improvements on State Highway 1 south of Whangārei, according to Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency.

The fatality rate on a 10km strip has dropped by 80 per cent since June 2018, when the agency installed the safety measures to stop drivers crossing the centreline.

Between Toetoe and Springfield roadd, flexible centreline bollards, a half metre-wide centreline with yellow no-passing lines and raised reflectors were installed.

The fatality rate reduced by 80 per cent when NZTA introduced safety measures. (File photo)

In the five years before the bollards were installed, there were nine fatalities and 25 serious injuries, but in the 3½ years since they were installed, there has been one fatality and five serious injuries.

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Then Northland road policing manager, Inspector Wayne Ewers, and then Northland Regional Transport Committee chairman John Bain admire the Brynderwyn flexible centreline barriers in 2017. (File photo)

But the safety upgrades stop just short of the fatal Oakleigh area, where 20-year-old Sarah Jayne Galloway died in 2006.

Huntly woman Donna Hillary Blake, 54, also died in the area in June 2019. Hikurangi man Randall Kevin Wilson was sent to jail for causing the crash after a petrol drive-off went wrong.

Waka Kotahi director of regional relationships, Steve Mutton, said more safety improvements are planned for SH1 between Whangārei and Port Marsden Highway (SH15).

The changes include widened centrelines and road shoulders, rumble strips and safety barriers, with work planned to start in April and taking 12 months to complete.

The safety improvements will remain in place until the upgraded four-lane corridor between Whangārei and Port Marsden Highway is completed in 2028, as part of the NZ infrastructure package.

“The safety posts and road markings are making a difference on a busy road that is undulating and winding with limited visibility and room for safe passing manoeuvres,” Mutton said.

“The centreline bollards are designed to stop drivers crossing the centre line – either in error or to overtake other vehicles – and putting themselves and other drivers at risk.”

Further south, flexible road safety barriers on the northern side of the Brynderwyn Hills have improved safety, with no fatal crashes since their installation in 2015.

This section of SH1 was considered high-risk with five deaths and four serious injuries between 2006 and 2010, but since the barriers were installed five years ago, there have been no fatalities and just five serious injuries.

The project also included widening the road and shoulders, removing tight corners and installing safety barriers along the edge of the road, with the while project being completed in 2017.

Last year, the flexible barriers were hit 15 times, but Mutton said they are designed to absorb the impact.

“Each time the centreline barrier is damaged we know a potential head-on collision has been avoided,” he said.

Installing infrastructure like flexible road safety barriers and reviewing speed limits are part of the Government’s road safety strategy, Road to Zero 2020-30, which aims to reduce deaths and serious injuries on our roads by 40 per cent over the next 10 years.