Numerous promises but still more crosses

By AINSLEY THOMSON

The stretch of State Highway 2 snaking through the rolling farmland of north Waikato seems unremarkable at first glance.

But the seemingly endless stream of white crosses dotted along the side of the road is a sombre reminder that this is one of the most lethal pieces of highway in the country.

If you make a mistake on this stretch of road, the experts say, it is likely to result in an accident.

And often it is a fatal accident.

In the past five years, at least 30 people have been killed travelling along the 35km stretch of road that passes through Mangatawhiri and Maramarua and on to the Thames turn-off.

The most recent victims were historian Michael King and his wife, Maria Jungowska, who were killed last Tuesday when their stationwagon veered off the road near Maramarua, hit a tree and exploded into flames.

On an average day between 12,000 and 14,000 vehicles travel along the road, which connects the north with the Coromandel Peninsula and the Bay of Plenty.

On holiday weekends, such as Easter, the volume of traffic doubles.

Over the past five years the high fatality rate has elicited numerous promises from Transit that changes will be made to improve safety.

Since 1999 the Herald has run headlines about these planned projects such as "Killer stretch of road gets upgrade at last" and "Deadly route will be wider, straighter".

But although small alterations have been made, the major work is still yet to be done.

The Automobile Association's director of public affairs, George Fairbairn, said the section of road needed urgent improvements.

"The volume of traffic along that piece of road would indicate that it should be a divided carriageway and preferably four-laning.

"We have to make it much safer than just a white-painted line down the middle, separating two streams of high traffic volumes."

Transit's Waikato regional manager, Colin Knaggs, said the stretch of road had a poor safety record.

"Basically it's because of the alignment and lack of passing opportunities, especially through the holiday periods. We are working on a strategy of what we are going to do on that section of highway."

The first project would be the proposed $24 million Mangatawhiri bypass. Construction is due to start next summer.

For the Maramarua section, Mr Knaggs said Transit was looking at "some corridor options", but these did not yet have planning approval.

"The new alignment will have no access off it, so you will have no intersections to cope with and it will bypass the Mangatawhiri township so you don't get caught up with shops. Our feeling is it will be much safer and much more efficient."

The AA classifies the stretch of road as one of the three most dangerous in the region, the other two being State Highway 1 between Mercer and Meremere and the stretch from Warkworth to Wellsford heading north.

The Land Transport Safety Authority's regional manager for Waikato and Bay of Plenty, Glenn Bunting, said the high fatality rate on State Highway 2 was partly because people drove on it like it was a four-lane motorway.

"Because of the volume of traffic you are more likely to find fatal and serious-injury crashes than on other pieces of road that have less traffic.

"If you make a mistake you are more likely to collect someone coming the other way."

The Waikato road policing manager, Inspector Leo Tooman, said inattention was a factor in the worrying number of deaths in the past two years. Drivers also found themselves "squeezed" at the end of passing lanes.