Hawke's Bay's fence crash woes: More than 500 recorded in three years

Cars through the fence are a regular at Matt Bron and Sandra Duthie's Te Mata Peak Road property. Photo / NZME

It's not just apple bins Hawke's Bay drivers crash into. Hawke's Bay Today report Gianina Schwanecke takes a look at the most common objects people hit with their cars.

Matt Bron and Sandra Duthie woke to another fence crash on Te Mata Peak Rd, Havelock North, on Monday morning.

They'd only just repaired it from a previous crash two weeks ago.

The car, which left the scene, took out four fence posts and eight battens.

"The post I put in two weeks ago has now been smashed in half," Duthie said.

"We are just going to do a simple fix because we know it's going to happen again."

They estimate they experience about one to two crashes through their fence line every year, at least $600 of damage each time.

They're not alone. According to data from Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, the most common stationary object struck by drivers in Hawke's Bay over the past three years was fences: there were 178 injury and 343 non-injury crashes involving fences.

The most recent crash on Te Mata Peak Rd took out four posts and eight battens along a section of fence Matt Bron and Sandra Duthie repaired just two weeks ago. Photo / Warren Buckland

The couple say they move stock to a paddock away from the road every time they go away, as they once had a car take out eight metres of fence line in a paddock where their goats were grazing while out of town.

"I'm so nervous someone will crash into the fence while we are away," Duthie said.

She wants council to implement safety changes on the road such as putting in an Armco barrier to prevent cars going through the fence.

"Because there have been so many accidents in this one spot I think the council has a duty of care to act [...] before someone gets hurt.

"It's a wonder no one has been killed."

A spokesperson for Hastings District Council confirmed there had been three crashes at the site since November last year, after which council made improvements to road signage to increase awareness of it the road's condition.

She said council would investigate the option of installing a guard rail at this location further.

The section of road was also in the forward works programme for reconstruction to improve the road alignment and make provision for active users.

"Council receives regular complaints about speeding vehicles on Te Mata Peak Rd.

"The alignment of Te Mata Peak Rd is challenging and requires strict adherence to the speed limit of 60 kilometres per hour."

Duthie also wanted to see police take a tougher stance with such drivers and impound vehicles.

"Nearly every single one of those the people have been driving an illegal car or haven't had a licence," she said. "The car just about always is not warranted or registered."

Constantly replacing small section of fencing was "frustrating" and "expensive", she said.

A car which crashed into a stack of apple bins near Hastings earlier this year, was not included in the NZTA figures. Photo / Ian Cooper

Interestingly, fences are not the only car magnets in Hawke's Bay.

Smashing into parked vehicles were also very common, though resulted in fewer injury crashes, 90 injury crashes compared to 291 non-injury crashes.

Crashes into ditches and trees were among the top three injury crashes at 110 and 108 each.

There were also 128 non-injury crashes involving trees and 105 non-injury ditch crashes.

Power poles were also high on the list of objects struck, with a total of 220 crashes in the past three years.

Eastern District road policing manager Matt Broderick said the findings were unsurprising but added there were often multiple factors involved in crashes.

"The crash factors are those choices we make."

He said Hawke's Bay had a high incidence rate of unlicensed or improperly licensed drivers.

"There are a reasonable number of high-risk drivers and people previously involved in crashes, drinking driving or other driving offences."

The high number of crashes involving fences, trees and ditches was "unsurprising" due to the layout of Hawke's Bay's centres.

Eastern District road policing manager Matt Broderick was unsurprised that fences, poles and ditches were common objects struck by Hawke's Bay drivers. Photo / NZME

"You get into rural and urban zones quite quickly. We're quite a dense township with large areas of rural intervening land.

"You've only got 500mm of tolerance either side before you're on the grass verge which sometimes leads into a ditch or a fence."

Connectivity systems including powerlines and lighting were also often alongside those verges, he said.

Broderick pointed to Farndon Rd, near Clive, and the intersection of St George's Rd and Havelock Rd as another common crash area.

"We have tree-lined streets which are beautiful to look at and treacherous to drive."

Eastern District road policing manager Matt Broderick said large tracts of rural land between the urban centres meant fence and pole crashes were not uncommon. Photo / Ian Cooper.

Replacing power poles hit by cars can be an even more expensive business than replacing some fences.

Unison relationship manager Danny Gough said the cost of replacing poles varied due to a number of factors.

This included the type of pole, access challenges, time of day, traffic management requirements, number of circuits on the pole, and is it also supporting other electrical equipment.

While costs could range from $3000 to more than $80,000, the average cost sat around $12,000, Gough said.