Tauranga's Welcome Bay residents fed up with crashes: 'We want people to slow down'

Tauranga City councillor and Welcome Bay ward representative Tina Salisbury. Photo / File

Residents fed up with out-of control-crashes in Welcome Bay are pleading for drivers to slow down.

The call follows an incident in which a car in a police pursuit crashed through two fences into a campervan and very nearly into a house where a family was sleeping inside.

A fence and campervan were also damaged in a crash after a police pursuit on Welcome Bay Rd. Photo / Kiri Gillespie

The crash happened about 10.45pm on Tuesday on Welcome Bay Rd, near Esmeralda Drive.

The next day, bleary-eyed occupants of the house told the Bay of Plenty Times they had been up half the night after a police pursuit but declined to comment further.

Outside, residents who lived nearby said they couldn't believe there had been yet another crash in the area.

"Since about New Year's this is the fourth or fifth crash around here," Alexander Sutherland said.

Sutherland, who also lives on Welcome Bay Rd, said while that crash was the result of a police pursuit, speed was a problem in the area.

"It's trucks as well as cars. I just think they come off the 60km/h zone down the road but keep going.

"It's because it's become a commuter road. People are treating it as a highway, but there's no excuse [for speeding].

"We want people to slow down. It's just too dangerous."

Some of the damage done by a car that went through the fence of a Welcome Bay Rd property early on Wednesday morning. Photo / Kiri Gillespie

Fellow Welcome Bay Rd resident Alison Blain said the speed of traffic travelling past often made it risky driving out of her driveway.

"They come around that corner and accelerate. Some days it gets quite scary."

Tauranga City councillor and Welcome Bay representative Tina Salisbury said speed was a serious concern and some people seemed to disregard the residential nature of the area "and speed through it like a highway".

"I also have seen a cyclist hit, an overturned car by the Community Centre and a car that has gone off a corner, just in the past few months," she said.

"I think it is time to review the speed limit along parts of Welcome Bay Rd and look at other safety measures, where our community, children and families cross this road. The 60km/h limit is not suitable."

A car that flipped in a crash on Welcome Bay Rd on December 30, 2019. Photo / File

Tauranga City Council is investigating a review of speed limits. Last year, the council received at least two different petitions from residents in Pāpāmoa and Pyes Pā calling for a slower speed limit.

Council transportation manager Martin Parkes has previously said the speed review involved a "huge amount of work" around the city, which included public consultation.

"It will involve at least 12 months of data gathering but the main part of the work will be engaging with the community. That's where we might get some kickback from some areas.

Emergency services at the scene where a cyclist was hit by a car on November 11, 2019, near Waitaha Rd. Photo / Supplied

"Speed is a very emotive subject and everyone has an opinion on where they live and where their kids go to school, so there is a huge amount of work to go into it."

Police were unable to answer how many crashes there had been on Welcome Bay Rd since January 1, 2020, before deadline.

A person arrested after Tuesday's crash is expected to appear in Thames District Court on Tuesday.