Meals on Wheels volunteers go through Gate 2 five days a week. Photo / Bevan Conley
Meals on Wheels volunteers go through Gate 2 five days a week. Photo / Bevan Conley
Regular users of a Whanganui Hospital driveway say recently-installed speed bumps are too hard on their cars and bodies - with one volunteer quitting his role because of them.
Age Concern Whanganui holds the contract for the local Meals on Wheels operation, whose volunteer drivers use the Whanganui Hospital gatetwo entrance to pick up deliveries.
Manager Michelle Malcolm said she had received numerous complaints from volunteers about the speed humps.
The majority of the team are over the age of 65.
"We have around 110 drivers delivering meals every week, and they use their own vehicles to do it," Malcolm said.
"They drive up to the kitchen, pick up the meals, deliver them, then drive back to the kitchen to drop off the containers. They go up and down that driveway four times in a day.
"Drivers are telling us how hard it is on their cars and how much of an impact it has on their bodies."
Their concerns caused Malcolm to test the speed bumps herself, and she wrote a letter of complaint to the Whanganui District Health Board in December last year.
One driver had decided not to volunteer anymore because of them, Malcolm said.
"I've got a bigger vehicle, but even then there's no escaping the shudder when you go over them."
A Whanganui Hospital facilities management spokesperson said they had received a number of complaints regarding the speed of drivers on the driveway prior to the speed bumps being installed around two months ago.
"The speed bumps were installed to address the serious health and safety concern of vehicle speed accessing the Gate 2 entrance and along the driveway of the hospital.
"They have made a noticeable improvement."
Speed humps were generally softer (lower and wider) than speed bumps, the spokesperson said.
There is currently no nationwide consistent standard for speed bump dimensions.
"Speed bumps would normally be used in slower traffic situations like at a hospital."
Michelle Malcolm says volunteer drivers use Gate 2 five days a week. Photo / File
Malcolm said while she understood the need to keep pedestrians safe on hospital grounds, she was yet to come across any similar speed bumps around Whanganui.
"I've never gone over one like it.
"All they need to do is cut the top off them and reseal them."
Drivers would still need to go over the speed bumps twice during the course of a delivery run.
"It's five days a week these people give up their time," Malcolm said.
"We deliver around 1000 meals a month, with six runs per day."
Whanganui District Health Board chief executive, Russell Simpson, said the speed bumps were there to stay, but they would flatten over time.
"The campus speed limit (25 km/h) is designed to ensure the speed bumps are safe to travel over," Simpson said.
The straight road had led to people speeding, Simpson said.
"That was a risk to pedestrian safety and to other traffic movement in and out."
They were installed as part of the replacement of that section of road, the hospital spokesperson said.
"The old road had an existing speed bump that was largely ignored and did not slow traffic down.
"Other speed bumps onsite that have been constructed with bitumen have flattened over time with use and become reasonably ineffective.
"We expect that these will do the same but hope that drivers develop better driving habits before this happens."
