The road to tragedy

Graffiti art on Auckland's Dominion Rd flyover records another tragedy on State Highway 2 at Maramarua.

In spray-painted neon, Bryce "Brizz" Mills, 24, his partner Philipa Robertson, 23, and their daughter Mercedes, 21 months, look out on the world they left behind.

Mr Mills, Ms Robertson and Mercedes were killed when their Mitsubishi and a 40-tonne truck collided on January 7. They were returning from holiday in Taupo, and State Highway 2 must have seemed a good road to travel - less traffic and safer than SH1, even with the 35-kilometre gauntlet below the Bombay Hills that has claimed 39 lives in five years.

In the graffiti, Mr Mills is poised, captured in a moment. A skateboarding king, he never slowed down. He was much different behind the wheel.

According to Mr Mills' friend of 20 years, Dave McDermott, he drove like "grandma". "He never had a speeding ticket. He's hardly driving like a maniac with Phili and his daughter in the car."

Mr Mills and Mr McDermott met on their first day at Arahoe Primary in West Auckland, went to Glen Eden Intermediate then Kelston Boys' High School.

"He was the dude who would land on his feet no matter what he was doing," says Mr McDermott.

He was a "straight-edger", part of a punk subculture that embraces abstinence. No drinking, no drugs and no promiscuity. He also didn't smoke, and both he and Ms Robertson were vegans. It was a lifestyle that blended easily with skateboarding, and its own culture of tattooing and graffiti.

Friends are now painting the Dominion Rd memorial in the family's honour. It's graffiti, but not. Elliot "Askew" O'Donnell is creating Ms Robertson on the wall. First with black, then grey, and finally white. Her face appears, taking fresh shapes with each pass of the spray can - first regal, haughty and finally beautiful and sad.

The couple met through music, and from the moment they met "it was obvious they were going to hook up". They had close friends in bands Blindspott, The Bleeders, Dejavoodoo and the all-girl Foamy Ed. Band members were later pallbearers at the funeral for the three, attended by more than 1000 people at the Glenora Rugby League Club.

When Mercedes was born in 1999, the man who was "shy of girls when he was younger" became the first in the group of friends to become a father.

Mr McDermott was woken on the morning after the accident by repeated missed calls on his mobile phone. He rang one number back at random to be told the news.

As news spread, friends gathered. Some flew in from Australia and the United States. The internet recorded grief, and in skate bowls out west it was marked in spray - painted portraits and slogans. "You are one in a billion Bryce ... peace" ... "It sux that always the good people go". This week Transit announced a quick-fix plan for the deadly Maramarua highway - too little, too late for Mr Mills and his family.

The band aid measures to reduce accidents on the highway were announced after Transit put out its draft 10-year plan.

The plan showed major works at Maramarua were 10 years away - and had been put off even further into the future than previously. Works at nearby Mangatawhiri are expected to start in October.

National's transport spokesman Maurice Williamson said there was no reason work at Maramarua could not start this time next year.

According to Transit's plan, on which it wants public comment, work will not begin until 2014.

Mr Williamson, who uses the stretch of road often, said: "Anything in the short-term that can reduce the likelihood of severe carnage is a good thing. But it seems to me like sticking a plaster over a very large festering sore."

Labour's Martin Gallagher, MP for Hamilton West, has also waded into the fray, attempting to organise a visit by Transport Minister Pete Hodgson to review blackspots in the region.

He said he was organising a delegation of Waikato mayors to meet Transit and make submissions. "What we are saying to the chief executive of Transit is 'Don't mess with the Waikato'."

The entire volunteer brigades at Maramarua and Mangatangi are preparing submissions calling for the Maramarua deviation to be built earlier. They also plan distributing submission forms to people living across the region.

Don Shanks, chief fire officer at Mangatangi, said the brigade was also going to be placing 50 white crosses along the highway, marking deaths on the road.