Residents want corner fixed

Western Heights residents are calling for action following this week's crash at what one calls a "horrible intersection".

A woman was taken to hospital after a two-car crash at the intersection of Gordon Rd, Thomas Cres and Turner Drive on Tuesday night.

Gordon Rd resident Roseanne Harris was in her house when she heard "a boom of a bang" that shook the house.

She said the "horrible intersection" was known to have frequent accidents and over the nine years she had lived there she had witnessed a lot of minor ones and administered first aid after at least three bigger ones.

"Although there are two stop signs a lot of people go straight through - nobody stops," she said. She said there were a lot of near-misses, and with three schools in the area there were a lot of children about.

"At night we hear the cars come down from Thomas Cres and speeding. They don't stop and somebody is going to get killed one day."

When the Rotorua Daily Post visited the area following the crash a missing stop sign on Turner Drive was being replaced.

A resident, who didn't want to be named, said the stop signs at the "troublesome corner" regularly got taken out and were often removed by children.

"I have my phone handy because someone will get collected one day."

Another resident, Piria Anderson, said she'd had her fence damaged twice from vehicles that had lost control. She said the corner had always been a problem. "Neighbours want something done with the corner."

However, Rotorua Lakes Council transport solutions director Stravos Michael said the council's database only had two recorded crashes at the Gordon Rd/Thomas Cres intersection since 2009 - excluding this week's crash. He said speed measurements had shown speeds were, on average, below posted limits on both roads.

Mr Michael said the council received many requests for road safety works and prioritised them according to level of risk, taking into consideration factors like location, crash data, vehicle speed and numbers, pedestrian presence and physical impediments like poor lines of sight.

"While Thomas Cres is higher on the priority list than Gordon Rd, intervention work there [Thomas Cres] is about five years away at present."

He was aware of requests for speed humps.