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Franklin Ward Councilman Andy Baker said he was concerned about whether the wire fence separating north and south traffic was appropriate.
“I think there should be a deeper investigation to see if they are doing the right things in the right places.”
Baker said he has been driving on this section of Highway 1 since it was built and that many heavy vehicles travel on it.
“I just want to see the best measures we can take to prevent this from happening again or make it as safe as possible,” he said.
Manukau district councillor Alf Filipaina said police and the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi were continuing to investigate the accident and that accountability must be held.
Earlier on Tuesday, Barry Geck told RNZ Morning Report The barrier is an old-fashioned one.
“There are different types of guardrails. The newer guardrails definitely do a better job of stopping trucks and vehicles, whereas this guardrail is more of the old-fashioned type.”
Geick said he is not concerned about the integrity of the wire rope guardrail.
Waka Kotahi national maintenance and operations manager Andrew Clark said the agency was assisting the police serious crash investigation unit and reviewing the crash scene.
Although medians are routinely inspected, the inspection will focus on whether road or roadside factors contributed to the accident and what safety improvements can be made.
Experts say only concrete barriers can prevent crashes
Meanwhile, Auckland University Transport Research Centre director Dr Douglas Wilson said concrete barriers were needed to stop trucks crossing the medians.
Although wire rope barriers are crash-tested at speeds up to 100 km/h, they are not designed to stop all types of vehicles.
Wilson said improving guardrails on roads and highways was a gradual process and New Zealand needed to consider its affordability.
“In New Zealand’s system, we can’t afford to put concrete TL6 (test level 6) barriers on all motorways and freeways to prevent these types of accidents.
“So we have to balance the costs of these things. These are not easy decisions for the NZTA to make.
“We can’t afford to have the same system as some of the countries we want to compare ourselves to.”
The lower the speed, the lower the risk of a serious crash – Green Party MP
Green Party MP and former transport minister Julie Anne Genter told RNZ Checkpoints The accident was “terrible”.
“No one in New Zealand wants anything like this to happen – to themselves or a loved one – which is why focusing on road safety and making our transport system as safe as possible is so important and should have cross-party support.”
She said it was important to “keep an open mind” about effective ways to reduce accidents.
“Incidents like this are nobody’s fault – it’s the vehicle’s fault – and it can happen anywhere on our roads, so we need to spread the money across our road network as much as possible to make it as safe as possible.”
She said that meant more medians and passing lanes, rather than the “very expensive new routes or four-lane motorways” that the current government has focused on.
“Because this is much more expensive, it necessarily means that only a very small portion of our network can be made secure.”
She said higher speeds were more likely to lead to death and serious injury, and the government’s approach to speed limits had been widely criticised by road safety experts and trauma surgeons.
Concrete barriers don’t reduce the risk of fatalities to zero and are much more expensive. She said given transportation budgets, using modern wire fences would ensure more roads are protected.
On two-lane roads common in rural New Zealand, the safe speed should not exceed 80 km/h.
“That’s the reality. At 100 kilometres an hour, the risk of death and serious injury is much higher than at 80 kilometres an hour.”
She said the previous government’s Road to Zero plan aimed to match speed management with road investment.
The safety plan aims to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries caused by road traffic accidents each year by 40% by 2030, and ultimately to zero.
The plan includes installing hundreds of kilometers of median strips.
But in February this year the coalition government announced it was scrapping the plan.
“New Zealand can and should work towards a safer transport system,” Gent said.
“When we look at countries similar to ours, their death rates per population and per kilometre are much lower… but we have to follow the evidence.
“Unfortunately, this will become more frequent if the current administration does not change its approach.”
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