Careless drivers put roadworkers at risk

Speeding and reckless drivers are increasingly wiping out themselves and workers at roadworks, new figures show.

But there is little will to enforce the 30km/h speed limits: in the latest incident, a police officer rolled a car in the central North Island while speeding, lights flashing, through a roadworks site.

Authorities do not keep figures on road deaths and injuries on roadwork sites, but contracting firms belonging to Roading NZ say that in the past year alone, at least 12 people died at roadworks.

Transport Safety Minister Harry Duynhoven is to launch a public awareness advertising campaign this week, urging motorists to slow down through roadworks.

He said yesterday that police were concerned about the problem and the need to enforce the speed limits.

 

In the central North Island accident south of Oio on January 20, two workmen were fortunately unscathed as a police car came through their site at pace, lights flashing for no obvious reason. The officer lost control on new seal and rolled the car, but escaped uninjured.

Works Infrastructure Ltd confirmed it had reported the incident, and police were investigating.

Road workers say they are taking their lives in their hands every time they go to work, pummelled by flying gravel shrapnel, always looking over their shoulders for the car that is going too fast or has ignored stop signs.

Works Infrastructure road worker John Allan, 56, was hit and thrown into a ditch late last year by a car full of teenage girls that kept on driving straight at him and the stop sign he was holding. He tried to leap out of the way, but was too late.

Though no workers are thought to have been killed last year, one was seriously injured when a poorly maintained horse float came loose from a car going too fast through a 30km/h limit roadworks site near Waitara. New Plymouth's Edward Hanson pleaded guilty to careless use of a motor vehicle, but the judge told him that he was lucky to not be facing a manslaughter charge.

Road worker John Pisarek, 49, has seen numerous accidents in his six years on the work gangs, including a car whose driver decided to drive through a closed off lane, and ran into the back of his truck.

He regularly faces abuse from motorists frustrated at delays: "Women will swear at you, especially when you're doing the stop/go sign.

"I don't know why I chose this career. Everybody crosses their fingers. Job satisfaction is nobody getting run over."

THE PAST YEAR

Feb 13, 2004: American tourist William Prescott, 53, died after skidding his motorbike near Kaikoura.

Mar 19: 55-year-old motorcyclist Neil Cardno dies after colliding head-on with a truck on a Waipapa Rd roadworks site.

May 26: Jack Dawkins, 87, is killed after a truck-and-trailer unit ran into his utility from behind while stopped at a roadworks queue near Tuamarina.

Oct: A middle-aged woman is killed when she drives into the back of a truck stopped at roadworks between Tokoroa and Putaruru.

Dec 10: NZ Post truckie Peter Harland, 54, and a Singaporean couple collide as they drive through roadworks at Mangaweka. All three die.

Jan 23, 2005: A taxi driver is killed when he collides with a truck and a car at roadworks on the Auckland motorway Ellerslie offramp.

- Herald on Sunday