Napier-Taupō highway horror sparks mayor's demands for action

A heat map plots the sites of serious crashes in the Hastings District Council stretch of SH5, from Eskdale to just north of Tarawera. Map / Supplied

The heat is on for a rethink on the condition of State Highway 5 from Napier to Taupō after revelations that crashes are averaging more than 70 a year.

There have been 321 crashes since the start of 2016, resulting in 12 deaths, of which eight have happened in the last year, according to New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi statistics supplied to Hawke's Bay Today.

The statistics have sparked a sharp response from Hastings mayor Sandra Hazlehurst, whose district comprises the Eskdale-to-Tarawera stretch, about half the 125km from the junctions with State Highway 2 north of Bay View and State Highway 1 near Taupō.

Hazlehurst is demanding answers, saying that more than 250 crashes since 2014 have happened in the approximately 70km in the Hastings District.

She said the eight fatalities in the last year had all happened at notorious crash sites, at Te Pohue and Te Haroto within the Hastings District and Rangitaiki in the Taupō District.
"Enough is enough" and the community is "fed-up" with a lack of action to improve safety on the road, she said.

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The mayor said she gets "multiple" calls daily from concerned residents and community members who are "extremely frustrated and scared ".

"They don't know what else to do other than call the mayor," she said. "I have spoken to the chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) and our regional NZTA representatives, but nothing has changed. Doing nothing about State Highway 5 is no longer an option - our community needs to be heard."

Truck driver Tony Alexander says one of the biggest fears of those at the controls of the biggest vehicles on the highway is "coming around the corner and being faced with something we can't avoid, or coming across a crash where there is nothing we can do."

That fear "came to fruition" for he and other heavy users of the road in one of the recent tragedies.

The condition of the road is, in places, "garbage" he says, highlighting "patches upon patches," undulating surfaces, and low-grade worn-away chip seal.

"As professionals that travel this road regularly we know these spots, but we sit back and wonder how some people make it home at night with the way they drive," he said.

Quoted in a council media release, business owner Dan Gale, who lives and works on SH5, said he is appalled at the condition of the road.

"The road is at its worse from Eskdale to the summit," he said. "In parts the entire north-bound lanes' surface is breaking up – it is riddled with pot holes."

"A lot of the damage is on corners with no signs warning of the damage to the road," he said. "So, I'm not surprised people are being caught out."

"It irks me that the Government is spending millions of dollars installing wire rope barriers on straight pieces of highway, when they can't even get the basics of having a good quality road surface on this State Highway right," he said. "I hope they take action soon and repair it to a decent standard so we stop hearing the emergency services go past so often."

The mayor understands a programme business case for the route was included in the last Hawke's Bay Regional Land Transport Plan to commence in 2020-21, but was not included for funding in the National Land Transport Programme.

The highway carries about 3000 vehicles a day, of which 15 per cent are heavy vehicles, including logging trucks.

Hazlehurst said having no budget to improve SH5 is just not good enough, and added: "The Government must invest more into the maintenance and safety improvements for this major highway so we can reduce the death and injury toll."

New National Party Napier electorate candidate and bus company operator Katie Nimon is calling for urgent action to improve communication facilities on the highway, on which most traffic travels to full length with little stop in-between.

The "cellphone blackspots" are a major safety issue and need to be "urgently addressed," and she has written to service provider Spark, highlighting the issue as outlined in the 2018-2028 Napier to Taupō Corridor Management Plan.

"The blackspots on the corridor's most dangerous parts, between Te Pohue and Rangitaiki, mean there are delays in response to unplanned events, which creates a life-threatening risk," she said.

"The safety of this road needs to be improved, and it is clear that the impact of upgrading coverage will make an immediate difference," she said. "It just needs to be done."

The corridor plan overview says: "The corridor has poor resilience with crashes or winter weather conditions typically closing the road for several hours. Communications along the corridor are poor with dead spots in the critical areas which can result in delays of up to 1 hour before emergency services are on the scene."

State Highway 5, also known as the Thermal Explorer Highway, extends in total 262km from a junction with State Highway 2 north of Bay View to a junction with State Highway 1 near Tirau, via Rotorua and bypassing Taupō since the opening 10 years ago of the East Taupō Arterial (now part of both SH5 and SH1).

It passes through the local authority districts of Hastings, Taupō, Rotorua Lakes and South Waikato, the parliamentary electorates of Napier, Taupō, Rotorua, Ikaroa-Rawhiti, Waiariki, and Hauraki-Waikato, and is overseen by the Hawke's Bay and Waikato Land Transport Committees.