Kawakawa Business Association chair Malcolm Francis wants the 100km speed sign alongside the Three Bridges to be set further out beyond the township
An online petition supported by emergency services is calling for changes to the 100km/h speed limit on a deadly stretch of Northland road close to a childcare centre.
Alice Rule, an ambassador for the Northland Rescue Helicopter and co-owner of a dairy farm in Pakaraka, is calling on the NZ Transport Agency to change the speed limit on the Three Bridges, at the entrance to Kawakawa, before people die in road crashes.
She said in the last three months, two people died and three were critically injured in accidents on the bridge while the NZ Transport Agency decided how to deal with the many complaints about the speed limit on that stretch of state highway 1.
The 100km/h starts about 50m from the intersection of SH1 and Reyner St where the Te Mirumiru Early Childhood Education Centre is located and continues along the Three Bridges and right up to just before Moerewa.
In January, a motorcyclist became Northland's first road fatality after a southbound Harley Davidson motorcycle he had been on collided head on with a truck on the middle bridge.
Rule was caught up in a traffic queue during that crash on her way home from milking and decided to raise awareness and a push to have the speed lowered on the bridges through an online petition.
Alice Rule has launched an online petition to get the NZ Transport Agency to change the speed limit on the Three Bridges in Kawakawa.
Photo/Supplied
Two years ago, she had a close brush on one of the bridges when an oncoming car overtaking traffic managed to pull back into the correct lane just in time to avoid a collision with her vehicle.
Her petition had garnered 429 signatures by 4pm yesterday and Rule said her aim was to reach 1000.
The Kawakawa Business Association and the local fire brigade are supporting her calls for the 100km/h speed sign to be pushed further north past the bridges and close to the intersection with Whangae Rd.
"There are multiple speed adjustments in and out of Moerewa on far less dangerous stretches of road. Two deaths and three people airlifted off those bridges since November last year is too much.
"We are asking for NZTA to listen to Northland police, Fire and Emergency services to make our roads safe. Too much red tape is costing Northlanders life, and impacting families losing their loved ones," she said.
In a short statement, NZTA pointed to a link that contained information about its speed reviews on the highest risk routes in New Zealand as part of the Safe Network Programme.
State highways north of Whangārei are not on NZTA's highest risk routes.
Auckland, Waikato and Canterbury have been identified as the priority regions for the first phase of the three-year programme.
Kawakawa Business Association chairman Malcolm Francis said he complained about the speed limit to former Transport Minister Simon Bridges in 2017 and has since also contacted NZTA but so far nothing has been done.
"The speed is 100km/h until about 20m of the gateway to Kawakawa and we've got mums with their children pulling out of the early childhood centre. It's a black spot."
A woman died when her car and another vehicle collided on the northernmost of the Three Bridges just north of Kawakawa.
Photo/Michael Cunningham
Kawakawa fire chief Wayne Martin, who was the first on the scene of this year's first fatality on the middle bridge and called 111, said he would support any initiative that saved people's lives.
He said the effect on firefighters dealing with crashes took its toll on them mentally.
"The Three Bridges is a narrow piece of state highway and lowering the speed limit may avoid higher impact during crashes or drivers may have time to slow down and avoid a collision."
Speed restriction, he said, should be pushed back towards Moerewa to make that intersection and the Three Bridges safer.
Labour list MP Willow-Jean Prime who hails from Moerewa said she would take the issue up with Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter next week.
Inspector Wayne Evers of the Northland road policing team said he supported anything that made roads safer.
Rule's online petition can be accessed on www.change.org
