Murray Harrison, of Harrison’s Cape Runner Tours, installs a 50km/h speed limit sign on SH1 north of Kaitaia with help from Kaitaia Motor Lodge owner Arthur Matthews (left), Far North District councillor Mate Radich, and property owner Selwyn Rule. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Murray Harrison, of Harrison’s Cape Runner Tours, installs a 50km/h speed limit sign on SH1 north of Kaitaia with help from Kaitaia Motor Lodge owner Arthur Matthews (left), Far North District councillor Mate Radich, and property owner Selwyn Rule. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Kaitaia residents calling for a 50km/h speed limit on what they say is a lethal stretch of highway have taken the matter into their own hands by installing their own road signs.
The group — most of whom own businesses on State Highway 1 at the northern end of town— had the signs professionally made then bolted them onto the official 70km/h signs just north of the Pak'nSave roundabout.
Further north, where the limit drops from 100km/h to 70km/h for traffic heading towards town, they changed it from 70 to 50.
Far North District councillor Mate Radich said the signs were installed on Wednesday evening but had been removed by Thursday morning.
They put them up again on Sunday evening but by Monday morning they were gone.
The group would keep changing the signs until the speed limit was reduced, he said.
''If they come down we'll just put them up again. We'll keep at it.''
Selwyn Rule, who owns a number of properties in the area, said the number of businesses along SH1 north of town had exploded to more than 40 in recent years.
They included two timber mills, a school bus depot, a tavern, two petrol stations and a freight depot, along with 18 dwellings.
Big box retailers had also abandoned the town centre and set up on the northern edge of Kaitaia.
Traffic entering and leaving those businesses had to negotiate vehicles travelling at 70-100km/h.
It was just a matter of time before another person was killed, he said.
The group wanted the 50km/h limit extended as far as Wireless Rd, about 1.3km north of the Pak'nSave roundabout.
The reduced limit needed to be backed up with a speed camera, Rule said.
Currently, the 50km/h urban limit ends at the roundabout. From there to Kaitaia Tractors, a distance of about 900m, the limit is 70km/h. Thereafter it's 100km/h.
The speed limit on SH1 north of Kaitaia jumps to 100km/h outside Kaitaia Tractors. Locals want the limit dropped to 50km/h as far as Wireless Rd. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Murray Harrison, owner of Harrison's Cape Runner Tours, estimated that traffic had quadrupled in the past three to four years.
Any time he had to get a big truck or bus out of his yard he had to send a staff member onto the highway with a stop-go sign.
''Otherwise we'd just get nailed,'' he said.
Kaitaia Tractors owner Ralph Garvin said customers leaving his business were forced to pull out into 100km/h traffic.
A few months ago, a ute turning into his yard was hit from behind by a vehicle travelling south at high speed.
''This is now a built-up area but it's still being treated like an open highway. Speed limits are being changed everywhere else but this dangerous piece of road is being ignored.''
Radich said it wasn't clear who reported the group's unofficial signs but they were removed by Ventia, which contracts to highway authority Waka Kotahi NZTA.
The contractors were sympathetic to the group's campaign for a lower speed limit but had been instructed to take the signs down.
The signs were returned.
Murray Harrison installs the group's professionally made 50km/h sign on SH1 north of Kaitaia. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Radich said Waka Kotahi's regional relationships manager Steve Mutton had agreed to meet the group on SH1, outside Kaitaia Tractors, on Monday afternoon to hear their concerns.
He was planning to put the group's signs back up for the duration of Mutton's visit.
Last week Mutton told him Waka Kotahi was considering dropping the speed limit — but the agency would have to consult the community first and that would take time.
Waka Kotahi did not respond to the Advocate's request for comment, but in reply to an earlier query Mutton said Waka Kotahi was currently reviewing speed limits in Northland.
Radich said he had also contacted Tai Tokerau MP Kelvin Davis, who had pledged to pass the group's concerns to Transport Minister Michael Wood. He had not heard back.
Vehicles pass a rubbish truck at speed outside Kaitaia Tractors, where the limit on SH1 jumps from 70km/h to 100km/h. Photo / Peter de Graaf
In a short time at the southern end of the Awanui Straight on Friday morning this reporter saw two incidents that highlighted local traffic concerns.
In the first, heavy traffic meant a truck and trailer was unable to turn right into the Mainfreight yard, causing traffic to back up behind it and drive over the shoulder to get around.
In the second, at the northern end of the 70km/h zone near Kaitaia Tractors, a line of northbound vehicles swung onto the wrong side of the road at speed to pass a rubbish truck pulling out of a driveway. Fortunately, no cars were heading south at that moment.
In 2017 Nicole Roach modified 100km/h signs on Kapiro Rd, north of Kerikeri, to set an unofficial limit of 80km/h. Photo / Peter de Graaf
It's not the first time Northlanders have taken matters into their own hands when it comes to speed limits.
In 2017 Nicole Roach, who lived next to a notorious black spot on Kapiro Rd, north of Kerikeri, had 80km/h stickers made to place over 100km/h signs. Her signs were removed three days later.
Another crash at the same black spot last week Tuesday involving a car, two utes and a trailer boat left two people in hospital and, according to a senior firefighter, a ''trail of carnage'' 100m long.
