Two people were injured in a crash south of Waipawa on Monday. Photo / File
It's been a horror week on Hawke's Bay roads, with five serious crashes in as many days.
This morning a car and truck collided in Central Hawke's Bay, just south of Waipawa.
Two women were transferred to Hawke's Bay Hospital, one in a stable condition, the other critical.
The female in a critical condition has since been transferred to Wellington Hospital.
As of this evening, she is in a serious condition in the intensive care unit at Wellington Hospital.
On Thursday, a truck driver was injured after a 4.10pm accident on the Twyford Hawke's Bay Expressway bridge. A few hours later police were called to a crash on Pakowhai Rd where two people suffered moderate injuries and another minor injuries.
On Friday morning, State Highway 50A in Hastings was closed after a serious two-car crash about 7.30am. A 17-year-old man was in a stable condition after the crash
A further crash occurred in Central Hawke's Bay on Saturday.
District road policing manager Matt Broderick said crashes tended to occur in peaks and troughs.
He said he couldn't comment on the specifics of the five recent crashes, but when assessing crashes on a national level, there were contributing factors which came up time and time again.
He said Hawke's Bay, in particular, has a problem with people driving without the correct licence.
This was in part due to people only being able to sit the driving test in Napier and Hastings, making it difficult for people in Central Hawke's Bay and Wairoa to do the test.
"It happens around the country, but we are over-represented in that particular aspect."
He said having unskilled drivers on the road meant people were less likely to drive to the conditions.
He said another aspect was increased traffic on the road, with New Zealand as a country travelling more.
"We've got roads that are challenging, more people on those roads, travelling more than they were before."
He said increased traffic meant if you made a mistake on the roads in New Zealand today, it was more likely for you to hit oncoming traffic than before.
He said the community needed to have a discussion about our roads, and start to realise how we have been driving for years in no longer good enough in today's world.
"We need to get our community behind the fact that we are individually responsible for our safety on the road."
"Which starts with making sure we are all driving to the same rules and regulations, and that means getting a driving licence."
He said many of our roads used to be safe to travel 100km/h on, because there was less traffic, but many of those roads were no longer safe at the current speed limit.
He said a lot of Hawke's Bay 100km/h roads should only be 80km/h, and some should be 60km/h.
He said as well as individual responsibility and community discussion, infrastructure updates such as centre barriers were important to keep people safe.
"We are, wherever possible, starting to upgrade our roads."
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