Skiers, RWC have Waikato road cops on tenterhooks

Police inspector Leo Tooman. Photo / Greg Bowker

Waikato's head of traffic policing is disappointed the region's road toll has risen, despite a fall in the rest of the country.

Inspector Leo Tooman said he was not comfortable with the number of deaths on Waikato roads this year, which now stands at 34 after yesterday's double fatality, up three on the same time last year.

"The national road toll is at 173 this year, which is a big drop, it's just disappointing that the Waikato hasn't followed the rest of the country."

Sandwiched between the ports of Auckland and Tauranga, Waikato is usually near the top of the list for road deaths. Three crashes in three days at the end of May left three people dead.

Mr Tooman is also concerned about the extra traffic the Rugby World Cup will bring. The bulk of the 95,000 expected visitors will land at Auckland Airport and many will travel through the Waikato.

"I anticipate there will be a lot of foreign visitors ... and some drive on the opposite side of the road to us. A lot will come to New Zealand after 24 hours on a plane, jump off, get their rental cars and head south to Rotorua."

Alcohol has been a factor in a third of all road deaths in the region while 10 of the motorists killed were under 21.

Figures from the Transport Agency show that a third of all accidents occur on bends where drivers lose control.

Mr Tooman singles out State Highway 39 - the shortcut Auckland skiers use between Ngaruawahia and Otorohanga when heading for Mt Ruapehu - as particularly dangerous. There were eight deaths on the road from 2003-08.

"These skiers have probably worked all day on Friday and jump in their cars to drive to the mountain where they ski all Saturday and probably party that night," he said.

"They hit the slopes again on Sunday morning until about 2pm, then jump in their cars, turn the air con up to 27 degrees. With serious crashes, we always check the climate control and what temperature it was set to."

Mr Tooman takes some satisfaction that the road toll has fallen by two-thirds since he was a young traffic officer in the 1970s. "I was in Putaruru and we used to regularly get into the hundreds of deaths."