Call to lower speed on stretch of State Highway 60 near Nelson

Saturday, 24 March 2018

A spate of crashes on the highway between Richmond and Motueka sparked a flurry of suggestions on how to apply the brakes to a worrying rise. Cherie Sivignon reports.

The sounds of two fatal crashes stay with Mike McGee, who lives alongside the Coastal Highway between Richmond and Motueka.

'We've lived there since 2002 and we've witnessed some pretty horrible things that have happened there,' McGee told the Tasman regional transport committee this week, during a hearing for submissions to the draft Tasman Regional Land Transport Plan.

The Coastal Highway is the stretch of State Highway 60 between Motueka and Pea Viner Corner, where the road becomes the Appleby Highway and continues on to Three Brothers Corner at Richmond.

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From his property on the corner of Maisey Rd and the Coastal Highway, McGee said his staff and family had heard and witnessed two fatal crashes 'and because we work right on the corner, we've generally been the first people out there and had to be involved in dealing with whatever is out there.

'The sounds and the eerie silence that follows accidents like that still stays with me.'

McGee was referring to a three-vehicle crash on December 2, 2015 and a four-vehicle collision on February 27, 2017.

Passenger Hazel Margaret Gill, 92, was taken to Nelson Hospital after the crash in 2015 and died on December 8. Stephen Anthony Jayes, 41, and Kevin Whitburn, 69, died after the 2017 collision.

McGee said he had also been the victim of a rear-end crash on the highway 'because someone travelling behind me did not see that I was turning right and wrote off my van, severely damaged their car and hurt themselves'.

A recent spate of serious crashes on and around the Appleby Highway prompted a call in February for a safety review of the increasingly busy SH60 by Nelson MP Dr Nick Smith and Tasman mayor Richard Kempthorne, who urged members of the public to share their views by making a submission to the draft Regional Land Transport Plan.

At the time, the mayor said since 2015, there had been seven deaths, 12 serious-injury crashes and 45 minor-injury crashes on SH60 between Richmond and Motueka. 'The human and social cost is simply too high.'

Smith said the fundamental problem was a growing number of vehicles due to an increased population along with more exports and tourists, adding that the volume of traffic had doubled over the past 20 years.

The public responded to the call for submissions and 95 were accepted by the committee, of which the majority related to SH60. Almost all of those submitters recommended the speed limit be lowered to 80kmh for the full stretch of the highway between Three Brothers Corner and the Maisey Rd intersection or the turn off to Mapua. Other suggestions included more turning lanes at intersections and widening the road.

McGee said one of his major concerns about SH60 was the lack of overtaking opportunities between Three Brothers Corner and Maisey Rd.

'What we see where we live: impatient drivers, frustrated drivers and an awful lot of crazy things going on once they … get up the hill.'

He called for more right turning lanes at intersections between Maisey Rd and McShane Rd. The intersections at Swamp Rd-Bartlett Rd, River Rd and the Rabbit Island turnoff 'could all be improved without considerable expense and all done quickly'.

McGee said he had tried to drive around the S-bends before Maisey Rd at 100kmh but did 'not feel that I'm in control of my car'.

Hoddy Rd resident Christine Boswijk said she had taken note of the speed she travelled along SH60 and it varied but 80kmh felt 'more comfortable'.

The volume of traffic had increased enormously over the past 30 years while the road itself had remained relatively unchanged, she said.

Meanwhile, the population in the area was tipped to grow.

'How long will this narrow road service the urban sprawl and the traffic incurred as a result of it,' she asked.

Drivers became impatient on that stretch of road because they could not pass and the traffic was an eclectic mix that included farm machinery, trucks, campervans and cyclists.

Coastal Highway resident Bill Unwin lives on the estuary side of the road, south of the Maisey Rd intersection. He told the committee the anecdotal evidence was that the volume of traffic from Monday to Friday had 'at least' doubled over the past six years.

Residents in the area put their lives at risk when they turned right into or out of their properties, Unwin said.

The combination of high speed and a lack of visibility was lethal.

'Instead of living the dream as we used to, we now live a daily nightmare,' Unwin said, urging a reduction in the speed limit.

Fellow Coastal Highway resident Kim Woods lives on the other side of the road, above the first corner south of the Maisey Rd intersection.

Woods said in the past three years, there had been at least two head-on collisions, two trucks rolling across the centre line, one collision with a metal guard rail, three vehicles losing control and coming to rest in the approaching lane and one driving off the road.

There had been two deaths, six serious injuries 'and many lives affected including the residents'.

'My wife would not get in a car for a week after the last accident,' Woods said.

A reduction of speed to 80kmh needed to happen immediately and be enforced. A large warning sign also needed to be erected at the southern entrance to the corner.

'If you respect human life and want to reduce the carnage inaction has caused, things need to be changed,' Woods said.

Mum Rachel Stevenson, who lives on the corner of Appleby Highway and Landsdowne Rd, said her biggest concern was speed particularly with the busy intersections and a drop to 80kmh would be the most practical solution.

She also highlighted the highway was a major school bus route and called for more signage indicating the presence of children. She also said there were no 'truck turning' signs to make other motorists aware of the need to slow for the trucks.

In a written submission, Cotterell Rd resident Gordon Challies says waiting in the middle of Appleby Highway to turn right into Cotterell Rd is an unpleasant experience that he likened to playing 'Russian roulette'.

'On one occasion when indicating a right turn, a car sped past me on my right from behind,' Challies says. 'Had I turned, I would have been killed instantly.'

Challis adds that he believes the intersection, Pea Viner Corner, was one of the worst between Richmond and Motueka and suggested a roundabout.

'Until this can be done, the speed limit should be lowered to 60kmh where it is currently at 80kmh or more people will surely be killed, possibly my grandchildren,' he says.

Fellow Cotterell Rd residents John and Ngaire Russ in their written submission say investment needs to be made to future proof the highway.

'State Highway 60 need to be widened, all the way from Three Brothers Corner right up to the hills at the end of the straight,' they say.

That would result in a four-lane highway allowing room for overtaking and traffic turning on to the feeder roads.

'If this is not feasible, extra space should at least be obtained to allow traffic to pull over to the left and let faster-moving traffic pass safely, and allow safe turning to and from feeder roads.'

The committee agreed to recommend NZTA urgently review the speed limit on SH60 with 'priority' given to lowering the speed limit on the section of the highway from Three Brothers Corner to Maisey Rd.

Meanwhile, committee members are due to deliberate on May 9 about the submissions and recommend the final Tasman Regional Land Transport Plan to the full council for its approval on May 24.

The plan, which is used to bid for funding from the National Land Transport Fund, is reviewed every three years.