Fears of deadly weekend in big wet

By SCOTT MacLEOD and PATRICK GOWER

The approach of Cyclone Sose has heightened fears of a bad Easter on the roads.

Police have responded by mobilising 130 staff on to dedicated highway patrols.

And the Land Transport Safety Authority is pleading for motorists to watch their following distances to avoid nose-to-tail smashes in the wet.

The police national road safety manager, Superintendent Steve Fitzgerald, said he was pessimistic about the outlook for the weekend because slick roads would give little traction to cornering and braking vehicles.

More people would be travelling longer distances than usual, so regular breaks to avoid fatigue were important. It was also advisable to drive more slowly, and to remember that some open roads were unsafe at 100 km/h when wet.

Nationally, two-thirds of the force's dedicated highway staff will be on patrol.

In the Waikato, police will have twice as many cars hunting speeding drivers along State Highway 1 than for any Easter before.

The new highway patrol unit, which has been catching up to 150 offending drivers a day since it was set up this year, will be joined by nearly every other available car on some of the country's deadliest roads.

The Herald understands Operation Easter involves having at least 30 police cars on the province's highway at any one time. Station sergeants will forsake their desks to join the 14 highway-patrol vehicles, three speed cameras and a booze-bus in keeping the roads safe.

They will have the help of the new Stalker radar, which has replaced the old Hawk system and has a much longer range.

Authority spokesman Craig Dowling said bad weather was a double-edged sword at Easter. More people would stay at home, but, on the other hand, those who did travel faced greater risks.

Authority figures show that the Easter road toll has fallen considerably since 1990, when 17 people were killed and 237 injured. Last year, six people died and 134 were hurt.

Mr Dowling said this was part of an overall trend towards better road safety.

However, there were also more traffic jams outside big cities during holidays, which made it harder for vehicles to reach dangerous speeds.

At least 134 people have died in smashes this year, compared with 129 at the same time last year.

Mr Fitzgerald said the main factors in the fatalities this year were alcohol, high speed and failure to wear seatbelts.

Local authorities and road managers report that Auckland and Northland are largely free of roadworks, but motorists can still expect traffic jams north of Auckland and at Kopu Bridge in the Coromandel.

Drivers heading south to Auckland on Monday will find passing lanes closed at Waiwera, Orewa and near Puhoi.

Transit NZ said this was to prevent traffic flows being hindered by merging vehicles.

South of Auckland, there will be speed restrictions for roadworks at two spots on State Highway 25, two on State Highway 2, and one each on State Highway 30 near Rotorua and the State Highway 38 link to Lake Waikaremoana.

Northland contractors said highways would be free of big roadworks.

The holiday period starts at 4 pm today and ends at 6 am on Tuesday.

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