Motorway bridge barriers on agenda

Bridge fences to stop people throwing missiles onto motorway traffic will be discussed at a high-level meeting between police and Transit New Zealand next week.

Transit said yesterday that it needed to know how often people threw rocks and other potentially deadly items from motorway overbridges before it could decide if it needed to add high fences to them.

Hilton Netterville, from Transit in Auckland, said nothing had yet been planned and the suggestion of higher barriers was still in its early stages.

Some bridges in Australia had been fitted with higher barriers after a woman was killed in an incident similar to a tragedy in Auckland last week.

Taupo motorist Chris Currie, 20, died instantly last Friday when an 8kg lump of concrete was thrown through his windscreen from an overbridge on the Southern Motorway.

"We don't have a definite programme ... we are going to work it through with police," Mr Netterville said.

He said if the decision was made to barricade bridges it would probably start in Auckland.

Transit shared police concern about the safety issues, Mr Netterville said.

"We are lucky there has been only one fatality because it is a busy motorway. We have to decide if it is a risk we can live with or something we need to batten off and work through with the police."

On Thursday, a rock was thrown from an overbridge through the windscreen of a southbound car.

The badly shaken driver pulled off at a motorway exit but the thrower was gone by the time police arrived.

An experienced Auckland policeman, who did not want to be named, said Transit might have to put high barriers on overbridges.

Transit had had "the luxury far too long" of low-railed bridges and needed to look at higher barriers, he said.

Several years ago, Auckland's Grafton Bridge was fitted with curved plastic barriers to stop people committing suicide by jumping off.

Auckland police yesterday urged motorists to report any suspicious activity as part of a combined effort with other agencies to identify anyone responsible for throwing objects at moving vehicles.

Superintendent Roger Carson said: "There was an immediate police response to the unnecessary loss of life last weekend and that sort of response will continue as a matter of priority to maintain the safety of the city's streets and motorways.

"Every hour of the day the motorway network is monitored by surveillance cameras, patrols are in streets and on the motorways and the public are very effective eyes and ears for the police, and I would encourage people to report suspicious activity.

"Police can and will respond to such information."

- NZPA