Road cone idiots put drivers in danger

Motorists' lives are being put at risk by people knocking over or altering road cones on Bay roads.
It's also been revealed that $50,000 worth of cones and signs go missing in Tauranga every year.
One shocking example, captured by a Bay of Plenty Times photographer last Friday, shows a van-load of youngsters hanging out the window along Cameron Rd trying to deliberately knock over road cones _ with one female leaning so far out the window only her waist and legs remained inside the vehicle.
Senior Sergeant Ian Campion, head of Tauranga's strategic traffic unit, said the reckless actions of the youngsters could have ended with serious injury.
"What's to prevent them from falling out the vehicle if they are leaning right out?
"If they fall out, they could get injured but even worse than that is the possibility of someone running them over."
Mr Campion said they could be prosecuted for riding in a dangerous position in a vehicle and the driver could also face action for permitting them to do so.
And while these sort of actions were happening on a monthly basis, there was also a small number of far more serious incidents occurring in Tauranga _ where people went to the extent of altering the route of the road cones.
Mr Campion recalled an incident on the Kaimai Range just a few months ago when a group of people moved more than a dozen cones so a lane of traffic swerved onto the opposite side of the road and into oncoming traffic.
"The actions of some vehicle occupants could have caused a serious crash," he said.
"It's only when the road works are unattended that generally occupants are silly enough to interfere with lane markings."
Fulton Hogan's regional manager Mark Stirton said there were now workers on several roadwork sites around Tauranga, including Cameron Rd and Hewletts Rd, whose sole job it was to manage traffic, stand up fallen road cones and direct traffic.
"That is a position that has been developing in relatively recent times," Mr Stirton said.
He estimated the cost of stolen road signs and cones to be in excess of $50,000 a year in Tauranga.
Mike Cassaidy, Fulton Hogan construction manager, agreed it was an issue and has heard of some potentially fatal incidents _ including one at the Route K roundabout.
"We've had some close calls over the years. At the Route K roundabout a group of teenagers changed the traffic control so there was potential for an accident. They were actually caught later on," Mr Cassaidy said.
"It's a huge problem. It's on all our work sites. We constantly have to have full time monitoring."
Mr Cassaidy said truck drivers got the knocked-over road cones stuck under their mud guards and carried them for kilometres down the road.
Theft of the road markers was also a big issue, with some sites having been completely emptied overnight.
Meanwhile, Nynette Martin, manager of Impact Tauranga, which owns the van involved in Friday's incident, said a group of at-risk youth were being transported at the time.
"The driver of the van did mention that to me. They pulled over to the side of the road and reprimanded them for their actions and their unacceptable behaviour."
According to Ms Martin, the youth were aged 14 and 15 and were being ferried from a community programme when the incident happened.
She added: "That can be the difficulty of dealing with at-risk and non-compliant young people ... which is part of the reason why we are supporting them," she said.