No fatalities and fewer serious crashes since State Highway 60 speed reduced

Friday, 31 July 2020

Bill Unwin​ considered moving after two men were killed in a horrific crash outside his home on Nelson’s Coastal Highway.

Now, 18 months after the speed limit was reduced on the busy Tasman highway linking Nelson and Motueka, he said the road felt much safer.

The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) dropped the speed limit from 100kmh to 80kmh along the section of State Highway 60 between Maisey and McShane Rds in December 2018. The increasingly busy highway has been the site of multiple fatal and serious crashes in recent years.

Unwin and his wife have lived in the area for eight years. Their driveway exits onto the highway where a three-car crash happened in February 2017 in which two people died, and four others were injured.

The crash happened after a holidaying United States heart surgeon Dr Kenneth Wolnak did a u-turn across the highway.

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**

“I can tell you that we were pretty insecure after that, we considered selling and moving.

“It is quite a bad corner in terms of visibility so having people go 20kmh slower just gives you that more time to react.”

Now, Unwin said the road had a “much better feel about it”.

“Everybody is pretty well sticking to the speed limit and those extra few seconds we have personally to get in and out of our driveway are all we need to feel much safer.”

There have been no fatalities along the stretch of State Highway 6 and serious accidents have dropped since the speed limit was reduced 18 months ago.

Between 2015 and 2017 there were 12 crashes in which eight people died and 12 people were seriously injured.

In 2019, there was one serious crash, four minor crashes and six crashes where there were no injuries. This year there have been two minor crashes and one non-injury crash.

There are more than 20 intersections along the 8.4 kilometre section of highway. During its consultation, the NZTA said the road had a high crash history, roadside hazards, challenging intersections and numerous access ways.

Tasman road policing team leader Senior Sergeant Grant Andrews​ when there was a 20kmh reduction in each direction, it worked out to be a 40kmh reduction in speed when two vehicles collided, which affected the severity of the crash and the outcome.

“Some of these people aren't the cause of the crash, so if both vehicles are travelling at a lesser speed it gives both drivers the opportunity to take evasive action.”

Andrews also said the speed reduction gave people more time when they were waiting to pull onto the highway.

“It gives you a bit longer if you do make a mistake, the severity of that mistake may be minimal and you may actually avoid a crash.”

An advocate for lowering the speed limit on dangerous stretches , Andrews said calculations had shown the 20kmh reduction added just over a minute to the travel time, in ideal conditions.

“To me, a minute to spare in getting there safely is well worth the reduction in speed.”

He said people around the country were often critical about speed cuts, but when a fatal crash occurred it meant the closure of the road, often disrupting travel for a large number of people and it came at the cost of someone’s life.

“What more can you say to people about spending a little bit more time to get somewhere safely?

“I drive that piece of highway every single day and I feel so much safer.”

Appleby Rural Volunteer Fire Force controller Paul Eggers​ said he couldn’t remember the last time he had been called to a crash on the state highway.

Firefighters were called out to serious incidents, fatal accidents and those where people were trapped in their vehicles.

He said the speed reduction had taken some getting used to, but it had “definitely worked” in decreasing the number of serious crashes.

“The lower the speed, the less likely people are to be injured.”

Tasman Regional Land Transport Committee chair Stuart Bryant​ said the statistics showed there had been a lot less crashes and deaths along that section of highway in the last 18 months.

Bryant said it was a “real positive” because the travel time and distances were negligible.

“Even in a trip from Motueka to Richmond the time difference is only 30 seconds to a minute, which in the overall scheme of things is not a lot.”