KEY POINTS:
A stand-off between two drivers on a one-way bridge in Queenstown yesterday brought traffic into the resort town to a halt.
The Edith Cavell bridge, over the Shotover River, is a one-way bridge between Queenstown and the skifield Coronet Peak. It has a "give way" sign at the southern end.
Yesterday, three cars entered at the southern end and were nearly across when a New Zealand Experience Milford Sound Select bus driver, with several passengers on board, came on from the opposite end and kept driving until his bus and the vehicles were grille-to-grille, the Otago Daily Times reported today.
The drivers of the opposing vehicles refused to budge.
By the time police arrived, 14 cars were backed up on the northern side of the bridge and 34 on the southern side, all fuming to the cacophony of blasting car horns.
Sergeant Andy Grant, of Queenstown, managed to talk the bus driver into backing down.
"A little common sense would have gone a long way," Mr Grant told the newspaper.
He planned to speak formally to the drivers of the bus and the cars on the bridge.
- NZPA
