PHOTO
More safety measures are in store for a crash-prone road in Christchurch’s Port Hills after a number of serious crashes over the past 18 months.
In early March, well-known aeronautical engineer and Coast to Coast instructor, Ian Huntsman, 60, died in hospital two weeks after he was seriously injured in a crash with a vehicle while cycling on Evans Pass Rd.
The driver, Tyson Stechman Stechman, plead guilty to dangerous driving and failing to stop last week in the Christchurch District Court. He will be sentenced in October.
In May, Christchurch City Council installed markers to alert drivers to a severe bend on Evans Pass Rd, advanced curve warnings and speed signs to make the stretch of road safer.
It now also plans to install bigger, clearer signs where the speed limit changes to 50 km/h from 60 km/h at Oceanview Tce at the bottom of the hill and make the curve warning signs more visible in the next two weeks.
Heathcote Ward city councillor Nathaniel Herz Jardine is also trying to progress red road surfacing at the speed limit change.
City council traffic operations manager Kathy Graham said there is no confirmed date for the red road surface installation.
ODT.co.nz reported the plight of three Sumner residents in December last year who were concerned with vehicles speeding down Evans Pass Rd towards the village.
Jason Irvine, Paul Bimler and Ian Skelton took the matter to the Waihoro Spreydon-Cashmere-Heathcote Community Board. They asked for a speed camera to be established at the bottom of the hill to deter people from going too fast.
Following the meeting in December, Herz Jardine unsuccessfully petitioned Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency to install a speed camera on the road.
Herz Jardine then approached city council staff who provided a report with the planned improvements to the road.
The city council staff report identified a notable trend in loss of control crashes, hence the improvements made to signage and curve warnings.
As the fatal crash is before the courts, information is not available for city council staff to comment on it and was not factored into its report.
Herz Jardine found the actions to be a bit disappointing but said there is nothing else they can do without NZTA being involved.
“We’re basically trying out a few ways of making it as clear as possible to everyone using that road, that it’s a dangerous stretch of road and that they need to slow down,” he said.
“I’ve really got to make sure we’re doing everything we can and not just rely on NZTA.”
Further assessment of the speed data showed the proportion of vehicles exceeding the speed limit by 10km/h or more each day, ranged between 8% and 12% of the total daily traffic.
Herz Jardine will wait to get data on whether the changes made have had an impact before going back to NZTA about cameras.
A NZTA spokesperson said it is continuing to talk to police and the city council about how it might best support speed management on Evans Pass Rd but, there is no plan at present for installation of a fixed safety camera.