Warning signs at highway junction not enough to prevent another fatal wrong-way collision

Tuesday, 19 January 2021

A driver passed at least five signs warning them not to turn into the traffic flow on State Highway 2 from Cornish St, Lower Hutt, before they and their passenger were killed in a crash on Tuesday morning.

A cluster of five signs warning drivers against entering State Highway 2 the wrong way was not enough to prevent a second double fatal crash involving a vehicle travelling against the flow of traffic on Wellington’s roads.

Two people died on the Wellington Urban Motorway when the car they were in travelled the wrong way for about 10 kilometres from Petone, Lower Hutt, before colliding with an oncoming car about 4.20am on Tuesday. Two people from the other car are in Wellington Regional Hospital in a serious condition.

In 2012, Grenada North man Michael Joseph McKinnon, 39, drove the wrong way along State Highway 1, near Churton Park, before he crashed, killing himself and father-of-four Nasona Vakai, 51. A passenger in Vakai’s vehicle also suffered injuries.

A coroner called for a review of signs at motorway off-ramps after that incident, but wrong-way crashes in and around the capital have not stopped.

The crash on the flyover between the Molesworth St on-ramp and the Aotea Quay on-ramp caused significant traffic delays until 9am.

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Cornish St has been used to incorrectly enter the northbound lanes of State Highway 2 in the past. In 2013, an 82-year-old driver crashed into oncoming vehicles after entering the highway the wrong way.

In 2019, Kathleen Grey drove for 13.5km on the wrong side of the motorway before colliding with 25-year-old father and husband-to-be Samuel Trent Jackson-Seligman just north of the Whitford Brown Ave turnoff on State Highway 1 in Porirua. Jackson-Seligman died at the scene.

A drunk driver fleeing police on State Highway 1 caused a head-on collision between Porirua and Tawa in 2014.

And in 2008, a couple, aged 99 and 100, were able to drive for 2km on the wrong side of the road up Ngauranga Gorge before colliding with a vehicle travelling south. Two people suffered moderate chest injuries and another had minor hand injuries.

In Tuesday’s crash, the car entered the motorway and headed south after turning right from Cornish St in Petone. Cornish St is a one-lane, one-way side street used as a turnoff from State Highway 2 for northbound cars heading to the Lower Hutt suburb of Korokoro. Signs warn motorists not to enter the highway from there.

After the fatal crash on the flyover between the Molesworth Street on-ramp and the Aotea Quay on-ramp, northbound lanes – including the Arras and Terrace tunnels – were closed for a period. There were significant traffic delays until 9am.

It is not the first time a southbound traveller has used Cornish St to enter northbound lanes of the motorway. In 2013, an 82-year-old driver crashed into oncoming vehicles after entering the highway the wrong way on Cornish St and drove for 500 metres down State Highway 2. She broke her leg and left four others with minor injuries.

Nationally, there have been 47 fatal crashes involving vehicles going the wrong way on one-way streets, motorways or roundabouts since 2010, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency figures show. Thirty of those crashes were on state highways.

NZ Automobile Association spokesman Dylan Thomsen said the frequency of such incidents was concerning.

“The number of fatal crashes involving drivers on the wrong side of the motorway in recent years is very concerning and the AA will be looking closely at the results of the investigations into the latest crash once they are complete and whether there are any common circumstances between the different incidents,” he said.