Work scheduled for Bloomfield Road-Bushmere Road intersection following car crash

Gisborne District Council has added the Bloomfield Road-Bushmere Road intersection to its maintenance schedule following a crash there in December in which several people were injured. Picture by Paul Rickard

Gisborne District Council has assessed the state of the Bloomfield Road-Bushmere Road intersection and roads leading up to it and recognises there has been deterioration.

Improvements have been scheduled in the council’s road maintenance programme.

The council and police have been discussing the state of the Matawhero intersection following a two-car, high-speed serious crash there on December 29 in which four R&V festival-goers from Hawke’s Bay and the driver of the other car were injured.

“We’ve been to the site and assessed all aspects of the intersection, including signs, barriers and markings,” said GDC Journeys operations manager Libby Young.

“The stop sign posts are all in place and meet requirements.”

The Herald has been told it is not a requirement by law to have two stop signs either side of an intersection like this one, where clearly there is two on one side as well as an earlier warning sign, and there was only one on the other side.

“The intersection is not legally required to have two signs, however, an additional sign was installed yesterday,” Ms Young said.

“We have noted that the line marking on the road is faded and that has been added to the programme schedule.

“We recognise the intersection has deteriorated from weather events over the past 12 months and it has been added to the maintenance schedule,” she said.

Police last week said they accepted the state of the intersection may have contributed to the crash, but there were also other contributing factors.

A serious crash inquiry into the incident continues.