Opinion: Kaimai luge ride - brave or reckless?

A Tauranga man luged down the Kaimai Range with traffic whizzing past beside him.

Riding a luge down the Kaimai Range - an act of bravery or reckless danger?

This week we reported on the actions of a Tauranga man who rode a luge down the Kaimai Range, in the middle of the day, with cars backed up behind him and travelling in the other direction past him.

Now, I'm not one to wrap myself in cotton wool and stay inside the safety of my own home.

In my 28 years I've broken my leg, my arm and my nose, not to mention a number of black eyes, a ruptured ear drum and countless cuts and scrapes. Most of those injuries were the result of me pushing the limit too far, as well as my own clumsiness.

I'm all for taking risks and making the most of life but, in my opinion, luging down a busy state highway was taking it too far.

In my mind, risk taking should be calculated. I have no problem with activities like skydiving, bungy jumping, wakeboarding, skateboarding, mountain biking and snowboarding. In fact I've done all of those things with varying levels of success.

But in all of those things, the level of risk is relatively low and, if something was to go wrong, it's only me who stands to be injured or killed.

The level of risk involved in riding a luge down a busy state highway is too high for me to be willing to give it a go. But more than that, in my view, it had the potential to put other people's safety at risk.

Those travelling behind him were unable to see what it was that was holding up the traffic ahead of them so, had they attempted to overtake, there was a high chance they could have run over him or put their lives in danger in an attempt to avoid a collision.

The same goes for people travelling up the hill towards him - as he swerved across the centre line on to the wrong side of the road.

If something had gone wrong, chances are someone would have been seriously injured- or worse.

If someone is willing to take risks with their own life, that's one thing. Potentially putting others at risk is another.