Motorway to be fenced off from schoolchildren

By ELIZABETH BINNING

Safety is to be improved along the section of the Northwestern Motorway where a 12-year-old boy died while trying to take a short cut home.

Guile Jackson was killed in October after being hit by a westbound van while crossing a section of the motorway between the Royal Rd and Hobsonville exits.

The spot is a popular crossing point for school children.

The options are to walk the long way around (a further 1km) or use a stormwater drain which runs underneath the motorway.

Yesterday, police, road safety co-ordinators, Transit New Zealand and Waitakere City Council representatives met to discuss the section of road.

They came up with several ways to improve safety, including a security fence to make it more difficult for children to get on to the motorway.

Construction of the fence is expected to start in the next few weeks.

Waitakere City councillor Ewen Gilmour will also visit schools in the area to promote road safety, an idea that has been welcomed by local principals.

Mr Gilmour said the stormwater drain under the motorway was not a safe alternative because it often filled with water, as on the night Guile died.

That was the reason, apparently, that he chose to run across the motorway.

Mr Gilmour has been pushing for an overbridge across the motorway, which has become increasingly busy following several nearby residential developments.

He said such an idea would take time but he had begun working on ways of funding a bridge.

The council's road safety co-ordinator, Kitch Cuthbert, said the measures and safety ideas discussed yesterday were all part of a public education campaign targeted at keeping people off the motorway.

She said most motorway deaths happened at night and usually involved males aged from 18 to 40 who were under the influence of alcohol, rather than young children.