Signs to cut death toll in Arthurs Pass

Deaths and "near misses" involving trampers in Arthurs Pass National Park have prompted the Department of Conservation to place clearer signs marking walking tracks.

Waimakariri area manager Kingsley Timpson said a number of signs had been erected on the Mt Aicken and Mt Cassidy tracks.

He was commenting after a coroner's inquest in Christchurch on Tuesday into the death last year of 55-year-old English tourist Elizabeth Thomson.

Christchurch alpine cliff rescue team leader Murray Cullen said Ms Thomson's death and that of German tourist Dieter Knoblich, who died in 2005, could have been prevented by better route-marking.