Residents and community leaders in the South Canterbury town of Geraldine say a “notorious” stretch of road where three people were killed overnight has been prone to crashes.<\/p>\n
Three people died when a campervan collided with a barrier and caught fire after 1am along State Highway 79’s Geraldine-Fairle Highway, near the intersection with Te Moana Road and Earl Road.<\/p>\n
Seven people died between Sunday and Monday on roads across the country – the latest occurred in Ngongotah\u0101 today, after a motorcyclist collided with another vehicle at the intersection of Dalbeth Road and SH36 at around 11am.<\/p>\n
It is understood the casualties near Geraldine were “not local”.<\/p>\n
Timaru’s Geraldine ward councillor Gavin Oliver said although the road had a bad reputation, he was shocked given the crash happened in the early hours.<\/p>\n
“There’s been an accident there about three years ago, where a local tradesman was lucky to have his life really,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s basically State Highway 79, it’s a busy route through Geraldine for people heading to Queenstown.<\/p>\n
“But I was quite shocked given the fact of how early in the morning it was.”<\/p>\n
Oliver called on central government to look at upgrades for the infamous intersection.<\/p>\n
“Especially on a highway like that, which is really busy.<\/p>\n
“It’s the main highway between Christchurch and Queenstown, carries all the traffic that is heading down that way, and it’s busy with trucks.<\/p>\n
“It’s a notorious piece of road and I think it’s probably time the government look at some improvements, particularly at that intersection.”<\/p>\n
Geraldine Community Board chair Jan Finlayson said it was a sad day for the loved ones of those killed, and the whole district.<\/p>\n
“Locals do tend to slow down well in advance of the intersection, and if they’re turning, they do [tend] to also indicate earlier than they would on another stretch of road.<\/p>\n
“But the accident happened at a very quiet time and perhaps unrelated to all the usual issues relating to the intersection.”<\/p>\n
On Monday, the town was littered with domestic and international visitors in what is known as a busy period for the area.<\/p>\n
Locals told RNZ were saddened and echoed concerns around the area of road.<\/p>\n
State Highway 79 south of the Earl Road intersection was closed for several hours, with contractors spotted working on the Speechlys Bridge on Monday.<\/p>\n
The road has since reopened.<\/p>\n
Another crash involving a campervan in South Canterbury happened in the afternoon on State Highway 80, near Lake Pukaki in the Mackenzie District.<\/p>\n
Two people were treated for serious injuries after their campervan rolled onto its roof on the Aoraki\/Mt Cook highway.<\/p>\n
National Road Policing Centre director superintendent Steve Greally said it was horrific for so many people to have died in a short period of time on the roads.<\/p>\n
“I feel for the families and friends who are grieving the loss of their loved ones right now. Their lives have been changed forever.”<\/p>\n
Police were committed to reducing the deaths and injuries caused by crashes but everyone had a part to play, Greally said.<\/p>\n
“We will continue to focus on people speeding and continue to pull over drivers who are not focused on what they are doing.<\/p>\n
“However, police alone cannot change the number of people dying on our roads and nor can our road safety partners.<\/p>\n
“Please pay attention to the road, if you’ve been drinking – don’t drive, and always wear your seat belt or helmet if you’re a rider.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
SOURCE RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Residents and community leaders in the South Canterbury town of Geraldine say a “notorious” stretch of road where three people were killed overnight has been prone to crashes. Three people died when a campervan collided with a barrier and caught fire after 1am along State Highway 79’s Geraldine-Fairle Highway, near the intersection with Te Moana […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4075"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4077,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4075\/revisions\/4077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}