The New Zealand Transport Agency was quick to remove human waste from a Wellington tunnel this morning as it was a matter of health and safety.
A drunk man who defecated in Wellington's Mt Victoria tunnel caused a delay in its opening this morning.
The tunnel was closed overnight for scheduled maintenance, when about 6am, just as the tunnel was scheduled to open, a man jumped from the walkway of the tunnel on to the road, and defecated.
A clean-up crew was promptly called to attend to the situation, delaying the opening of the tunnel by 45 minutes.
New Zealand Transport Agency spokesman Anthony Frith said the clean up was a matter of health and safety, and defended the amount of time it took to tidy away the offending material.
"We've got a responsibility to clean up substances like that - both for hygiene and safety reasons.
"It's important to clean it up while it is still in one place, before tyres start to track it all over the place.
Our maintenance crews had gone home so it was important that we called the appropriate clean up crews and they needed to get to the site and ensure that the offending material was removed.
"We are very pleased we had it open comfortably before 7am so the morning commuters were only effected minimally."
Mr Frith said he imagined a "very similar protocol" would be followed if an animal was to leave its business behind.
"It would still be a safety and a hygiene issue."
Mr Frith said it was fortunate that today's incident was an "anomaly".
Police said the identity of the man who did the offending act remained a mystery, however they would review CCTV footage in the hopes of identifying him.
- Eli Orzessek and Nikki Papatsoumas of NZME. News Service
