KEY POINTS:
The death of a cyclist has prompted a coroner to sound a warning against increasingly large real estate advertising signs.
Sandra Grace Reeve, 48, died on January 5 after colliding with a Toyota Hilux 4WD at Lepperton. New Plymouth coroner Roger Mori found that a large property advertising sign had obscured her vision.
With agents competing harder to sell about 70,000 houses nationally, more open-home flags are billowing on roadsides, creating a potential death trap. Fixed for-sale and auction signs have got much bigger, sparking calls for moderation and common sense.
Mr Mori sought the Real Estate Institute's co-operation to warn its 20,000 members to be careful about their signs.
Owen Mills, Stratford branch manager of First National Allied Farmers, had put up the sign which the coroner found rose almost 2m above the ground on a road reserve.
Mr Mills was advertising the auction of an adjacent rural property and said he could not put the sign on the dairy farm because he feared cows would demolish it. The police found the sign created a considerable visual impairment.
"It is almost certain that the deceased did not see the Toyota vehicle because at the relevant second she looked to her right it was obscured by the sign," Mr Mori wrote in a report on the death.
If something positive could come from the tragedy, it was that real estate agents should be more careful where they put their signs and avoid intersections, he said.
"They have got to be sensitive to the fact that the size of their signs might be a traffic hazard because they can block vision for a split second."
The institute agreed and went a step further, disclosing rising public disquiet about the enormous flags ballooning from the side of agents' vehicles.
Don't put them on the driver's side, agents were told.
"REINZ recommends that flags are placed on the kerbside of a vehicle, as opposed to the roadside," the institute warned.
"For the sake of public safety, REINZ considers it imperative to highlight the dangers of erecting signs in areas where clear vision is essential for road users," the institute told its members. It then issued a check-list for agents.
The mother of Sandra Reeve, Jean Reeve, said her daughter had a daughter and son aged 23 and 18. The tragedy had been very tough on them and the wider family, she said.
The case had a sequel this year when the New Plymouth District Council prosecuted because the sign breached the Resource Management Act 1991 and the district plan. Allied Farmers pleaded guilty and was convicted and fined $15,000.
Sandra Reeve died after suffering multiple fractures and a head injury.
AGENCY ALERT
* Be more careful with signs
* Avoid major intersections
* Get planning permission
