The Latham St and Wellesley Rd intersection in Napier is one of the most densely concentrated sites for crashes that lead to injury in Hawke's Bay. Photo / Paul Taylor
The Latham St and Wellesley Rd intersection in Napier is one of the most densely concentrated sites for crashes that lead to injury in Hawke's Bay. Photo / Paul Taylor
Data has revealed that some of the most dangerous places to drive in Hawke's Bay may be found among the residential streets of Napier.
Data from Waka Kotahi's road traffic crash database, Crash Analysis System (CAS), has revealed the most dangerous spots on Hawke's Bay roads based on the numberof fatal, serious and minor crashes from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2021 as of July 7, 2022.
Napier is home to two spots with the highest density of recorded crashes.
The intersection of Georges Drive and Kennedy Rd has seen 10 crashes in that time frame, resulting in five seriously injured people and 14 with minor injuries.
A Napier City council spokesperson said this area was controlled by Waka Kotahi, but the council had been working with them on solutions.
"Council has worked with Waka Kotahi to improve safety at this intersection and this includes realigning approach lanes and assisting with the design of traffic signal upgrades to include protected right turn phases."
Behind it is the intersection of Latham St and Wellesley Rd, where nine crashes have resulted in one seriously injured person and 11 more with minor injuries.
The council spokesperson said it is undertaking option assessments to evaluate what changes could be introduced and how effective they may be.
Closer to the Hastings district, a single area on State Highway 2 where it runs concurrently with SH50 1.35km, north of the intersection with Pakowhai Rd, there have been eight crashes leading to nine people with minor injuries.
A Hastings District Council spokesperson said intersection improvements works were carried out near Pakowhai Rd and Farndon Rd as part of the Te Ara Kahikatea project.
The intersection of Maraekakaho Rd and York Rd has had seven crashes, with one seriously injured person and eight with minor injuries.
The HDC spokesperson said council identified this intersection as a high risk in its most recent safety strategy, allocating funding and applying for assistance through Waka Kotahi's Road to Zero programme to construct a roundabout.
"The application is currently under review at Waka Kotahi and we should know the outcome of this application within a month and if successful, construction will begin later this year," the spokesperson said.
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On Te Aute Rd, 335m east of the intersection with Longlands Rd East, there have been six crashes with three people seriously injured and three with minor injuries.
The HDC spokesperson said the council identified the corridor as high risk in 2017 and have completed a number of works.
These have included extending the 50km/h section and reducing the 100km/h speed limit to 80km/h, geometric improvements at the Te Aute Rd/Gilpin Rd intersection, signage and delineation improvements and guardrails at high-risk locations including bridges.
"Council will be reviewing the need for an extension of the 50km/h zone as part of the next speed limit review," the spokesperson said
"We have also designed geometric improvements at the intersection of Te Aute/St Georges/Mt Erin intersection which will be constructed later this year as part of the Mt Erin Rd reconstruction."
Rurally the density of crashes is typically lower, but the consequences are deadlier for the dangerous spots.
On a section of SH5 900m south of Turangakumu Rd, there have been six crashes with two deaths, four seriously injured and three with minor injuries.
Most of these incidents happened in 2017 and this area is part of the section of SH5 where Waka Kotahi reduced the speed limit from 100km/h to 80km/h in February this year.
The Kennedy Rd and Georges Dr intersection in Napier, has the highest density of crashes- ten with a toll of five seriously injured and 14 with minor injuries over five years. Photo / Paul Taylor
The number of crashes under urban areas listed in the data are crashes that happened within a 30m radius.
The number of crashes under rural areas listed are crashes that happened within a 250m radius.
CAS is updated once a traffic crash report is received from NZ Police sometime after the crash.
Waka Kotahi notes that the 2021 data is incomplete.
Waka Kotahi also notes in caveats for the data that due to the nature of non-fatal crashes it is believed they are under-reported and the level of under-reporting decreases with the severity of the crash.
It also notes the greatly reduced number of traffic on the roads under the alert system and traffic light settings for Covid lockdowns likely reduced the number of crashes and did not align with previous trends.
