Icy Kilmog crashes investigation

Three recent crashes on the same section of State Highway 1 north of Dunedin will be investigated in depth by the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA), after emergency services attributed the crashes to black ice.

NZTA says the crashes are a reminder winter is here and people need to drive appropriately.

Waitati Deputy Chief Fire Officer Lindsay Scott contacted the Otago Daily Times yesterday to express his concern about the stretch of highway running down from the bottom of the south end of the Kilmog Hill, at Evansdale, after he attended a crash there about 10.30am.

Neither he, nor Waikouaiti police officer Constable Jon-Paul Tremain, who also attended the crash, believed the road was gritted before the crash.

Mr Scott said he called NZTA on its 0800 number requesting the stretch be gritted, but the call-taker's response was "indifferent".

"I tried to impress on him [the call-taker] the importance of the situation, but he was not interested.

It's not nice when you have to go to something [an accident] like that and somebody's seriously injured; especially when it could have been prevented."

Const Tremain said in the first crash, last week, a car landed on its roof after it slid off the road about 8.30am.

The road was gritted after he reported the crash to NZTA.

That crash, and two yesterday, one about 6.30am and another at 10.30am, were within about 500m of each other.

None of the people in the crashes had been injured, but all were shaken.

He did not believe speed was a factor in any of the crashes. Initial indicators were that the road condition at the time was the common factor.

"It is the NZTA's responsibility to spray [ice retardant] or grit the road to make it safe."

After initial investigations, NZTA's region network manager Otago-Southland, Murray Clarke, said it appeared the crashes were most likely the fault of the drivers.

But he said he would investigate in detail the circumstances of the three crashes to see if there were any consistencies.

He understood contractors gritted the whole incline about 20 minutes before the first crash yesterday.

It appeared motorists were not driving to the conditions, he said, or did not know how to drive on grit.

Dozens, even hundreds, of vehicles would have passed through the area without incident about the same time that day, Mr Clarke said yesterday.

He recommended drivers kept their speed under 60kmh when driving on grit.

They should also remember that any kind of sudden acceleration could, when driving on grit, result in the vehicle sliding.

There was plenty of warning about road conditions yesterday, both from the large signs erected in the area, and in warnings broadcast on radio.

Unlike frost, black ice was unpredictable, he said. Because it formed from water and the chemical ice retardant was washed away in water, the retardant was ineffective in battling black ice.

He said it was usual policy to respond as soon as possible to any request for grit to be laid where highways were slippery.

debbie.porteous@odt.co.nz

 

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