Police admit to failing over motorway crash

9.45am

Police in Auckland have conceded they let down commuters after a serious crash on July 12 caused gridlock.

Disruption to peak traffic after the accident, in which a man was seriously injured, backed up almost 20km along the Northern Motorway past Oteha Valley Rd.

The critical Fanshawe St entry to Auckland City was closed to traffic until 9.15am - four hours after the pre-dawn crash.

Detective Superintendent Gavin Jones commissioned a report following the incident.

He said today: "The report has clearly highlighted areas where we failed Aucklanders".

"Public and media commentary following the incident has reinforced the need to have a high level of urgency and capability when clearing crash scenes".

Over 15,700 drivers travelled south across the bridge that morning, almost 6,500 of them were expecting to take the Fanshawe St exit into the city, police said.

"Many people were clearly inconvenienced, some for a very long time, for that I am sorry," Mr Jones added.

"However, I believe this report has come up with effective ways of ensuring this doesn't happen again and I have instructed senior staff to implement the report's recommendations".

"I'd like to reassure the travelling public that serious incident management on our roads is a priority and I give you my commitment of continuing to improve it."

Mr Jones said some of the team wanted to wait until daylight to take pictures, further delaying the re-opening of the motorway, but they should have used lights provided by firefighters.

Inspector Jim Wilson, who prepared the report, said the main police failure was not to have a strategic overview of what was happening outside the accident scene.

"That's where the mistake was made. We focused too much on the immediate scene rather than take an overall look at what was happening.

"What we should have done is taken a move-it-and-mark-it policy where we would mark out the scene using paint where the vehicle came to rest in the middle of the intersection, then moved it after taking photographs.

"At that stage we would have been able to make a full or partial re-opening of the road." Mr Wilson said.

However, he also said there were delays before key staff arrived; reopening the motorway was not a priority; there was a failure to consider all the options of clearing the scene; the most up to date gear for gathering data was not used; and a traffic management plan which included diversions was not implemented.

Mr Jones said staff followed policy to the letter but the report highlighted the need to be more flexible, particularly at possibly one of the worst intersections in Auckland.

He said the failure to appreciate the impact of the crash was a basic failure and the lessons learnt would be spread around all three Auckland police districts.

He said "disciplinary action" for those at the scene was too strong but police must learn from the incident.

Police recommendations:

* In future cases of this nature where there is an identified, actual or potential disruption to traffic flows (particularly on main arterial routes), the "mark and move" option is to be used as a matter of priority once other emergency services have declared the scene safe and injured persons are attended to and/or removed to hospital or a place of safety.

* Where total or partial closure of a major arterial route is invoked, a workable traffic management plan which includes the possibility of diverting traffic via alternate routes must be implemented.

* A formal protocol (memorandum of understanding) is to be developed regarding the sharing of the latest technology across the three Auckland Police districts.

* That the Serious Crash Unit (Auckland City District) be trained in the most appropriate up-to-date equipment. This will ensure that all available data is collected from the crash scene as efficiently and effectively as possible.

* That the Auckland City District Order pertaining to "Serious Crash Investigation Protocol" be reviewed and, if necessary, updated (and circulated) to reflect a range of tactics and options available to staff attending serious crashes on major arterial routes so as to ensure that, where possible, traffic flows are maintained as a matter of priority.

* Joint training exercises and sharing of technical and human resources between Auckland Metro Serious Crash Units.

Alarm over length of road closure



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