Napier residents calling for speed bumps to combat reckless driving

Morris Spence Ave, Onekawa, resident Wayne Jordan with his neighbour Les Allan, left, showing the damage done to Jordan's car by a dangerous driver. Photo / Warren Buckland

Retiree Wayne Jordan woke up at 11pm to an all too familiar 'bang' as another driver crashed after racing down his residential Napier street.

His visiting son soon let him know that this time a young driver had crashed into the back of Jordan's car and trailer, writing it off.

Jordan says his is the second parked vehicle that someone has crashed into down his street in four months.

A police spokeswoman said an 18-year-old female driver was summonsed for careless driving and excess breath alcohol and served a 28 day licence suspension after the Tuesday incident.

Jordan and other residents on Morris Spence Ave, Onekawa, have been living with dangerous drivers for years.

"It's not just the boy racers, it's the adults too in their V8 Falcon utes and all that, they're racing up here too," he said.

Jordan has lived in the area for about 20 years and feels like the issue has worsened in the past few years.

"There has been about a good dozen accidents on this road, we've rung the council and the council tell us to ring the police, we ring the police and the police tell us to ring the council."

He said residents want Napier City Council to install speed bumps down Morris Spence Ave.

"Look at Riverbend Rd, what they've done down there. We've got a school here, and a playcentre, but we haven't got any [speed bumps]," Jordan said.

"Someone is going to get killed, someone has to do something about it."

Fresh burnout tyre marks on the corner of Morris Spence Ave and Wyatt Ave, Napier. Photo / Warren Buckland

Councillor Maxine Boag said she was not familiar with the specific situation on Morris Spence Ave, but had heard about speeding in the residential backstreets of Napier often.

"Probably more than anything else, we do get more requests for means of slowing down traffic and boy racers, it's very common across the city," Boag said.

She said when residents notified the council about speeding down their street, typically a black strip would be put in place that will log information about the speed of vehicles travelling over it.

"When they come up with this data, it has to be looked at before they will put in any traffic calming intervention because that can give them some idea of how dangerous the situation is."

Boag said she would advise the residents of Morris Spence Ave to contact the council and request what street they want the black strip on and what time they think the problem is worst.

She warned that it could take some time to put any measure in place because of the process and how highly in demand traffic calming was.

"The council staff are very sympathetic, I think they have quite a long waiting list of people wanting this to be considered for their particular residential area."

Debra Stewart, director of infrastructure for Napier City Council, said the council follows up on all information about transport related issues that they receive from residents and checks if it is something they can help with.

"This information helps us decide where we should conduct traffic safety surveys, which help us prioritise our work programme," Stewart said.

"This is reviewed annually, as part of the Annual Plan, and also informs the Long Term Plan."

She said the council urged anyone concerned about speeding vehicles to contact police in the first instance.

A council spokesperson confirmed the council had received two requests from residents of Morris Spence Ave for speed bumps to be installed in the last six months.