Ban on white crosses comes under fire

By Jo-Marie Brown
A Tauranga man who pioneered roadside white crosses today slammed Transit New Zealand's decision to remove the memorials from motorway fatality sites.
Transit New Zealand says it is not safe for people to stop on the side of motorways to put up or maintain crosses, which dot roadsides around the country where people have died in road crashes.
It now plans to remove them, although crosses would still be tolerated on other roads such as state highways - provided they met certain criteria.
But Ian Carter, the Tauranga architect who helped pioneer the first white crosses in about 1990, today said Transit had always hated the idea and was determined to get rid of them.
"They see it as a threat to their ability to design roads. They don't like the public seeing them because they can point the finger about dangerous corners and things."
Mr Carter and a group of supporters came up with the white crosses as a powerful way of reminding people about the carnage that occurred on New Zealand's roads. They put up more than 50 crosses along the Te Puna-Athenree section of SH2 and the idea took off.
He did not believe there was any safety issue associated with them. "They should prosecute people if they're creating a hazard ... but it takes 10 minutes to put up a cross. I'm sure they can be erected in a safe manner.
"Even if you had a police escort to do it - I'm sure the police would be perfectly happy to help."
Mr Carter said passing motorists only glanced at the crosses. He said Transit's own "blackspot" road signs were more of a distraction to motorists. "Transit needs to pull its head in and assist and co-operate."
Victim Support also opposes Transit's plans, saying the families of people killed on the motorways were being "revictimised".
Transit New Zealand network operations manager David Bates said the white crosses would be removed in line with a policy which had been in place for some time but which had not been rigidly enforced.
"On the motorways we just felt it was intolerable in terms of the safety issues that went with that," Mr Bates said.
He said they worked with the police and other agencies and have told them why the policy was in place.
But that was disputed today by Victims Support chief executive Steven Caldwell, who said they had not been approached and there had been no discussion.
"It's frustrating," Mr Caldwell said.
He said Transit New Zealand could work with people rather than putting them through more trauma by ripping up the crosses.