Police reviewing Blackhead Rd intersection

The approach to Tunnel Beach  and Green Island Bush Rds on Blackhead Rd, looking towards Dunedin....
The approach to Tunnel Beach and Green Island Bush Rds on Blackhead Rd, looking towards Dunedin. Photo by Stephen Jaquiery.
Police are reviewing the road layout and signage at a Blackhead Rd intersection, in Dunedin, following the death of two Korean nationals.

The pair, who lived in the Waitaki district, were travelling in a hatchback which was in collision with a four-wheel-drive vehicle, the force propelling both cars through a fence and into a paddock.

Passenger Jewon Yeon (32) died at the scene of the crash, at the intersection of Blackhead, Tunnel Beach and Green Island Bush Rds on February 13.

His female travel companion, Jiseon Jeon (31), the driver, died later in Dunedin Hospital.

An investigation into the crash was ongoing, Otago Coastal road policing manager Senior Sergeant Phil McDouall said.

Police would be reviewing the road layout and signage with a ''potential view to working with the Dunedin City Council to improve it''.

Police regularly patrolled the area and had received no complaints about the road in ''recent times'', he said.

However, a review of the road could not come soon enough for a Blackhead Rd resident, who told the Otago Daily Times the road layout, speed limit, signage and number of overseas drivers using the popular route meant more serious crashes were likely.

DCC group transportation manager Gene Ollerenshaw said the council had received no complaints about the intersection in the past five years.

However, a resident had requested a footpath be installed on Blackhead Rd and the speed limit on that road be lowered as part of the most recent speed limit review.

Both of these requests were investigated by a qualified traffic engineer and no action was recommended, he said.

''The DCC will carry out a thorough review once we have the police report and all investigations are closed,'' he said.

hamish.mcneilly@odt.co.nz

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