Colleen Brownlie at home with her son Leonard, a day after crashing and flipping her car after coming into contact with freshly laid gravel on SH10 near Mangōnui. Amazingly, she escaped with just a graze on her right arm.
Colleen Brownlie at home with her son Leonard, a day after crashing and flipping her car after coming into contact with freshly laid gravel on SH10 near Mangōnui. Amazingly, she escaped with just a graze on her right arm.
A 73-year-old cancer patient is lucky to be alive following a nasty accident on SH10 near Mangōnui.
Colleen Brownlie of Hihi was driving north for her embroidery class in Taipā last Wednesday when she allegedly hit freshly laid gravel at 100km/h between Oparihi Rd and Waterfront Dr.
The impact of the crash sent Brownlie’s car veering into mangroves, flipping the car on its roof and forcing a tree through the windscreen, missing her by centimetres.
Brownlie said she was driving the speed limit when the accident occurred.
“I remember thinking, I thought it was going to be bloody cancer that killed me, not this,” she said.
Brownlie’s son Leonard claimed he was told by traffic management the accident had occurred during the changeover period between night and day shift workers.
Leonard alleged this was the reason his mother did not see the roadwork signs when she crashed.
“My mum, whose car she needs to get to her hospital appointments in Whangārei, is now without a car,” he said.
“The signs were all lying down flat and right at the edge of the road where the metal starts, so I don’t believe there was any way you could stop or slow down in time.
“I’m just glad nothing more serious happened - someone was definitely watching over her that day.”
Brownlie and her son both live on SH10 and said the increase in traffic in recent months had been a concern.
Leonard claimed he’d seen and heard of a number of accidents recently that had occurred between Kāeo and Mangōnui.
He believed the closure of the Mangamuka Gorge paired with failing roads, heavier trucks and more frequent roadworks meant the conditions were an accident waiting to happen.
“The metal they’re using is just a band-aid solution to the problem and I believe they left way too much on the road,” Leonard said.
“We pay so much money to ensure our cars or bikes are up to standard, but what’s the point when our roads aren’t up to standard?”
Police confirmed they were called to a single-vehicle crash on SH10, Mangōnui at 8.49am on April 19, where one person received minor injuries.
Brownlie's car is a write-off according to her son Leonard.
A police spokesperson said inquiries into the circumstances of the crash were ongoing.
“Any concerns regarding road works should be directed to Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency.”
Regarding the number of car accidents on SH10 from Kāeo to Mangōnui, police said that information would need to be obtained under an OIA, which the Age has requested.
A Waka Kotahi NZTA spokesperson confirmed they were aware of last week’s traffic incident.
The roading agency did not comment on Leonard’s claims about traffic management but said, “unattended site signage was set up for resealing work on approximately 2km of SH10 on Tuesday (April 18) at 5.15 pm, as per standard procedures.”
“A total of 15 signs and 21 cones were in place overnight.
The 30km/h signs which Leonard Brownlie said were lying down when his mother approached the roadworks at 100km/h.
“Traffic management crew arrived on site on the morning of Wednesday (April 19) and advanced warning variable message signs (AWVMS) were put in place for additional messaging reinforcement.”
The spokesperson said the work crew then set up traffic management for the programme of work for that day.
Brownlie’s accident comes off the back of a damning report released last week showing Waka Kotahi’s Road to Zero targets to cut deaths and serious injuries on Northland’s roads had not been met.
According to the monitoring report released in July last year, 38 people died in crashes on Northland roads in 2022- an increase of 14 per cent from 2020 to 2021.
The report comes two years after the launch of the national strategy to decrease the number of deaths and serious injuries on the roads by 40 per cent in 10 years.
AA Northland District Council chair Tracey Rissetto said in a recent interview that while Road to Zero was a great strategy, there were issues with its execution in New Zealand.
“If you look at Switzerland who have done an amazing Road to Zero, a lot of that was because they actually spent a lot of money on road engineering,” Rissetto said.
“Victoria’s the same - Victoria has had a marked decrease in fatalities but they have spent a lot of money on making the roads wider and not having culverts and just simple things like moving power poles out of the way.”
National Party’s Northland candidate, Grant McCallum, said the latest report on the Road to Zero strategy highlighted what he believed every Northlander already knew - “that our roads were in an unacceptable state”.
He said the AA calling for up-to-date road engineering to make Northland roads safer was no surprise either.
“A great start would be the primary purpose of the National Land Transport Fund to be restored to ensure we are building and maintaining our roading network,” McCallum said.
“I will be working hard to ensure Northland gets the investment it needs so that our roads are up to an acceptable standard and put an end to the continuous closures of vital links like State Highway 1 over the Brynderwyns and the Mangamukas.”
