Still they die on killer highway

It is too little, too late for Kate Clarkin's family. In August last year they lost a wife, a mother and a grandmother when the car she was a passenger in smashed into a truck at the Kopuku Rd intersection on State Highway 2, near Maramarua.

Last weekend, Dayle Eynon, 35, from Whitianga, died when his light truck hit a horse trailer.

Despite endless meetings, discussions and handwringing, this stretch of State Highway 2 between Pokeno and the turnoff to Thames is still killing people.

In February, a Herald on Sunday campaign calling for Transit New Zealand to make the road safer garnered massive support.

Yet, in the past year, 11 more have died and many others injured, while the planned four-lane highway aimed to fix the problem is years away.

After last weekend's fatal accident, Transit is closing the passing lane at the Kopuku Rd junction to assess safety improvements. But it is little consolation for the Clarkinfamily. Mrs Clarkin's sister-in-law, Hine Clarkin, has come to live with her brother Fred to help care for Kate's daughter Taylor, now 13, who was in the car when her mother died. The family often travelled past the spot where Kate died, Hine Clarkin said. "We have tried to stay strong but it is lonely for them."

There has been some progress.

Transit has spent $3 million on safety improvements, and approved $43 million for a four-lane deviation around Mangatawhiri, starting early next year.

But the start date for a $66 million project to build a similar deviation around Maramarua was pulled forward just two years to 2011.

Transit New Zealand Waikato regional manager Chris Allen said it was up to the region to decide if the project should go ahead sooner. Don Shanks of Mangatangi Volunteer Fire Brigade said the latest improvements had helped slow traffic down, but added: "They should start at one end of the bloody road and bulldoze a new one."

And he was pessimistic about the Mangatawhiri deviation, saying: "It is just going to move these crashes up the road a little further."

Port Waikato National MP Paul Hutchison berated Transit's efforts. "It is only patch-up work that is quite insufficient ... Given increasing traffic - 30,000 vehicles a day - it makes a state highway in modern New Zealand equivalent to a third-world country with third-world death rates."

The new Minister of Transport, David Parker, said a Joint Officials Group was considering Waikato roading needs and would report to government by the end of the year.

YEAR OF TRAGEDY AS TOLL MOUNTS

October 29, 2005

Dayle Aiden Eynon, 35, of Whitianga, died when the light truck he was driving collided with a horse float at the intersection of State Highway 2 and Kopuku Rd, Maramarua.

March 18, 2005

A motorcycle rider died when he collided with a truck 800m east of the intersection of State Highway 2 and Pinnacle Hill Rd, Mangatawhiri.

February 15, 2005

An English tourist, Susan Pritchard, died after wood from a truck pulling a trailer smashed into the windscreen of the car she was driving.

January 7, 2005

New Lynn woman Philipa Robertson, 23, partner Bryce Mills, 23, and their 22-month-old daughter Mercedes were killed when their Mitsubishi car collided with a truck on State Highway 2 near Maramarua.

January 3, 2005

A driver was killed at the intersection of State Highway 2 and State Highway 25.

December 21, 2005

Anna Leah died when her car crossed the centre line and collided with another car travelling the other way. Her daughter Jane Leen suffered severe head injuries. The driver of the other car was also killed.

December 9, 2004

Mark Chirnside, 32, of Katikati died after his car and a truck collided on State Highway 2 near Maramarua.

November 11, 2004

Phillipa Quinn, 55, of Thames died when her vehicle hit a truck and ricocheted into the path of another.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY