When Stephanie McMillan came home to find her fence smashed, gate wrecked, a tree bowled and rose bushes ruined she thought "not again."
It is the third time in recent years motorists have lost control outside her house in Kiripaka Rd, Whangarei, and wiped out part of her fence. She arrived
home to the latest wreckage on Wednesday afternoon.
Apart from annoyance, immediately followed by concern about who would end up paying for the repairs, Ms McMillan's was worried that until the gate was secure her dog could escape onto busy Kiripaka Rd.
"I never get recompensed. They either haven't got insurance or haven't got any money. I don't even get a phone call from someone saying sorry," Ms McMillan said.
This time, though the police have assured Ms McMillan she will get financial reparation.
Luckily, on none of the occasions cars have swiped the fence was Ms McMillan gardening near it, nor grandchildren or her dog in the vicinity.
But she is stumped about why cars get into difficulty on the straight, flat stretch of road outside her house.
"Surely the drivers aren't always drunk or incompetent, or both," Ms McMillan said.
But apparently, that's the most likely answer. On each of the three separate occasions one driver was heading up the road, one was heading down the road and the other was driving under the influence of alcohol.
A Whangarei District Council roading engineer who yesterday checked the road for possible camber or other underlying structural problems found nothing.
