The aftermath of a car smashing into a parked-up roller on Te Aute Rd on Saturday, which has left a woman in her 30s in a serious condition in hospital for several days now. Photo / Connull Lang
The aftermath of a car smashing into a parked-up roller on Te Aute Rd on Saturday, which has left a woman in her 30s in a serious condition in hospital for several days now. Photo / Connull Lang
OPINION
I tip-toed my car over the Awanui Stream bridge near Havelock North on Friday night, because I knew I needed to be careful.
I drive several times a day over this tight little 80km/h road. The bouncy little bridge on Te Aute Road is the trickiest part because youswing immediately into a right-hand turn through an intersection and straight onto the 100km/h Longlands Rd.
This intersection and this bridge were tired, flood-prone, and in need of some roadworks when Fulton Hogan turned up last week at the orders of the Hastings District Council.
But the extent of the works - the seal ripped off and replaced with loose stone - had caught me off guard on Friday evening.
To my shock, I ran into a deep build-up of loose stone and the rear of the car started to fishtail directly towards a roller parked on the side of the road.
The loose shingle nearly sent Hawke's Bay Today editor Chris Hyde into the roller that was crashed into by someone else eight hours later. Photo / Connull Lang
At 40km/h I had time to bring it under control and move on a little shaken. As I drove away I said to myself ‘someone’s going to hit that roller tonight’.
By the time I’d reached home, I’d forgotten about the whole thing. But eight hours later, my prediction would come true.
“One person was seriously injured after a car crashed into a parked vehicle near Hastings early on Saturday,” the Hawke’s Bay Today report read on Sunday.
“The crash happened about 5.30am along Te Aute Rd in the suburb of Pakipaki, close to an area undergoing road works.
“The parked vehicle was believed to be a roller machine.”
A man quickly wrote a response to the Hawke’s Bay Today’s article, urging a reporter to go and have a closer look. He said the way the intersection had been left by roadworkers amounted to a “death trap”.
Turns out, yes. Fulton Hogan has told me it will be conducting an internal review into the incident.
And the council told me its staff spoke to Fulton Hogan at least twice about it.
Council staff first got in touch on Sunday to ask it to review its traffic management at the intersection and sweep loose chip away, and then again on Monday went out to inspect it, talk about signage and to request more “improvements”.
Of course, the awful impact of this crash could have been avoided, had the car been travelling slower when it hit the turn.
A council spokeswoman suggested the same to me in her response:
“This speed limit and signage was installed in recognition that the site had a milled surface with a sudden dip at the start and end of each site.
“Any vehicle entering this area at speeds over that signposted would be more at risk of losing control.”
Can you argue Fulton Hogan is to blame for a car hitting the parked roller which was entirely off the road? You certainly can’t argue that the roller caused the impact.
What we should do instead is look at the insights this incident provides as this country debates just how much red tape we can cut from our lives.
From dolphin protection, to speed limits, David Seymour and Christopher Luxon want to remove the “obstruction economy” the government has placed around your life, and reduce costs in doing so.
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has already indirectly targeted the thriving road cone industry, noting the obscene cost of building pedestrian crossings in Auckland, all of which had budget blowouts because of the traffic management bill.
The problem is that in 2024, drivers are used to a certain level of traffic management, just as builders are used to a certain level of scaffolding and grocery shoppers are used to a certain level of food safety standards.
These regulations to save us from ourselves have all increased rapidly over the last 50 years and they can be a pain at times.
But on Friday, when there were hardly any roadcones in sight of a freshly ripped-up intersection, the night ended with harsh consequences.
The woman in her 30s was still in Hawke’s Bay Hospital on Tuesday morning in a serious condition, a Te Whatu Ora spokeswoman said. She likely has a long recovery ahead.
If we go back to the ‘good old days’, it stands to reason that you’ll get more of what happened on Te Aute Rd on Saturday morning.
Seymour’s line has been that government regulation takes the fun out of life. For the woman who took on a roller in Hawke’s Bay, life isn’t fun right now.
Chris Hyde is the editor of Hawke’s Bay Today. He has 10 years’ experience in regional newsrooms.
