Napier man Dennis Uncles lost his son Jesse, 21, in a car accident on Farndon Rd in 2015. Photo/Warren Buckland
Napier man Dennis Uncles lost his son Jesse, 21, in a car accident on Farndon Rd in 2015. Photo/Warren Buckland
Parents who have lost their children in car accidents on Farndon Rd have given their views on a council proposal to lower the speed limit to 80km/h.
Farndon Rd was one of seven stretches the Hastings District Council proposed to impose speed reductions on after safety investigations and public consultation.
In the past five years there have been 22 crashes on the road, two of which have been fatal, yet the council's proposal was met with mixed feedback from the public and even those who have lost loved ones on the stretch.
Napier man Dennis Uncles lost his son Jesse in a car accident on Farndon Rd in 2015.
The 21-year-old was killed instantly in the back seat of Tyler Walker's unregistered and unwarranted 1997 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 4 on August 8 that year.
Walker, who was four times over the drink-drive alcohol limit, drove dangerously and spun out on a moderate bend on the road.
Uncles contacted Hawke's Bay Today after hearing about the council's proposal to shave 20km/h off the speed limit and said he opposed the move despite losing his son on the deadly stretch.
"The law breakers are still going to break the law, it doesn't matter what speed you put on there," he said.
"You can put it down to 30km/h but people are not going to do that. The ones that break the law are going to carry on breaking the law."
Jesse Uncles' roadside cross memorial on Farndon Rd. Photo/Duncan Brown
Uncles said if the council went ahead with the proposed speed reduction it would increase congestion on the road, causing motorists to get impatient and pass other vehicles when conditions weren't safe.
"They should put more police on there to slow people down and get the rule breakers and have heavier fines and penalties."
Walker, 22, was jailed for three years and nine months and disqualified form driving for seven years for the 2015 crash.
He pleaded guilty to one charge of drink-driving causing death, two charges of drink-driving causing injury and one of dangerous driving.
Uncles said he still didn't think Walker's sentence was long enough.
"I still don't agree with what Tyler got for killing my son. As far as I'm concerned it should be classed as murder with a 10-year penalty
"We've the ones that have lost; we've lost our son. When he does get out he can have grandchildren.
"His family are going to have grandkids and great grandkids but we've lost all that."
Hastings woman Helen Morris lost her daughter Tahl Southwick, 18, when her car collided with a truck on Farndon Rd in March last year.
Morris lodged a submission in support of the proposed speed reduction and said she believed a lower speed limit would enable motorists to better handle human errors.
"In Tahl's instance it was an undetermined distraction so we don't know what that was but for whatever reason coming around that corner her wheels started to go towards the ditch, where there was very little room for error, causing her to over correct."
A roadside cross memorial to Tahl Southwick on Farndon Rd. Photo/Duncan Brown
While she said no one would ever know if Tahl would have survived the crash had the speed limit been 80km/h, a lower speed limit would allow people to better recover when they made mistakes without causing significant harm.
"Imagine the difference going at 100km/h suddenly being confronted by that situation and, if you're inexperienced or just a normal person, your instincts are to turn the steering wheel and over correct.
"If you're going 20km/h slower that may give you enough seconds, even if it's only a couple, to turn the wheel out a bit as opposed to panicking and over correcting."
She said a speed reduction on Farndon Rd would align with a nationwide safer roads strategy, adding Farndon Rd's risk factors meant it should have always had an 80km/h speed limit.
"I just want any given person at any given time to just have that extra margin of time to be able to recover from anything, any human error that may have occurred."
As of yesterday Tahl's case was still active before the Coroner, and Morris said she was still recovering from her only daughter's death.
"It's a daily thing and in many ways I'm hugely blessed because I have such an amazing, strong girl who is always with me and I've been able to probably manage her loss in a stronger way but it doesn't go away.
"She's in my thoughts every single second of the day and I just miss her hugely. In some ways I'm blessed and otherwise I'm not because gosh you always wish for that extra time but I am lucky."
