Killer corner had already failed Transit safety test

Nine people were killed on State Highway 27 in Waikato when their van skidded on a bend. Picture / Fotopress

The Waikato corner which claimed the lives of nine people in a horror bus crash failed Transit's highway safety inspection just months earlier.

A technical report has revealed the corner had the same level of traction that snow would offer.

The information is contained in documents released to the Herald on Sunday under the Official Information Act.

The accident was New Zealand's worst in a decade. A tourist van slid across the road and hit an oncoming truck. Eight tourists and their driver died. The truck driver escaped injury but was traumatised.

After the accident the corner was marked down from 100km/h to 50km/h, with a "slippery surface" sign to warn motorists.

The information was sought after the truck driver described the road surface as like driving on "glass" and witnesses reported a heavy layer of bitumen on the road surface.

A police inquiry is still under way, but the Herald on Sunday has obtained some of the information investigators are studying.

It shows testing of the highway in November last year turned up readings revealing a section of the corner was below safety levels.

A letter from Transit chief executive Rick van Barneveld shows the roading authority used waterblasting to remove "excess bitumen" from the corner on February 16.

Mr van Barneveld said after the treatment "the remaining length of the curve was judged to be clearly adequate, with no maintenance required".

After the crash, witnesses told the Herald on Sunday the waterblasting appeared to end at the apex of the curve. There were concerns the change in road surface from that which had been waterblasted could destabilise a vehicle.

Mr van Barneveld said skid resistance had been tested since the May 18 crash to check it had not gotten worse since being checked six months earlier, and to ensure the crash had not affected traction.

He said the road continued to meet Transit's standards for skid resistance, although the whole corner would be waterblasted again.

Other documents obtained by the Herald on Sunday include a Transit technical report which accompanied orders to do the work in February.

The report showed the waterblasting treatment used before the crash was still being investigated.

It warns: "(Waterblasting) is the subject of a Transfund research project and in the interim caution should be exercised and checks made on the effectiveness and life of any waterblasting."

Transit network operations manager Roly Frost also defended work done on the corner, saying testing carried out after the accident showed waterblasting had been effective. He refused to divulge the test results, at the request of police, but said they met Transit's safety standards.

He said the accident scene and sections of the road either side were waterblasted a second time after the accident "as a precaution".

National operations expert David Cook said waterblasting had shown good results in research currently under way. The technique consistently restored the condition of the road by exposing stone, which helped tyres grip the surface.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY