By PAUL YANDALL
One of the most lethal stretches of road in the country was the scene of more tragedy yesterday after two men died in a head-on collision.
The black spot between Mangatawhiri and Maramarua in the Waikato was closed for several hours as emergency services attended the accident.
The smash occurred
around 11.30 am near the Mangatawhiri intersection when a car travelling towards Thames on State Highway 2 appeared to lose control on a bend, said Sergeant Noel Foster of the Pukekohe police.
The car hit an oncoming vehicle and was sheared in half by the impact. The two occupants of the Thames-bound car died at the scene.
They had not been named last night.
The driver of the other vehicle was flown in the WestpacTrust air ambulance to Middlemore Hospital in South Auckland and was in a stable condition last night.
"There's no indication yet of what exactly caused the accident," said Sergeant Foster.
"We get a lot on this road but this has to be the most horrific I've seen."
More than 10,000 vehicles travel the route each day. Fifty-two crashes occurred in 1997 and 1998, killing seven.
Several people have already died on the route this year. The road was also the scene of an eight-vehicle crash that injured 14 people in July.
An area manager for Transit NZ, Chris Allen, said a $15 million upgrade of the route should begin next year.
Although Transit NZ considered the road a particularly high accident area, he said, work could not begin until negotiations with landowners were complete.
The Hamilton regional manager for the Land Transport Safety Authority, Glenn Bunting, said drivers were finding it difficult to adjust from the motorway conditions of State Highway 1 near Auckland to the rougher standards of State Highway 2.
"What it comes down to is because of the volumes of traffic involved, and speeds they're travelling at, there's just no room for error."
Mr Bunting said the authority would investigate whether new signs or better markings would have made a difference in yesterday's accident.
