Raymond Fife said while it was difficult to comment on the crashes on State Highway 1, as there could have been "multiple factors" which led to those accidents, he felt sorry for everyone involved — especially for the family of the person who died in the second crash.
The person died yesterday in a two-vehicle crash involving a truck in the Greenhills area, near the intersection with Stanley Township Rd at 6.10am, and on Wednesday, a truck rolled on the same stretch of highway, closing the road for about two hours, but with no injuries sustained.
Mr Fife said this highway was important for the Bluff community as it was the only access to the coastal town.
While there was no major feedback from the community, apart from occasional pothole reports, the community board would see if there was anything it could do to improve the safety of residents and visitors.
"It is a road where we have a lot of activity with many heavy vehicles.
"There will be an investigation and we will find out more and make some decisions then. We want a road where people can travel safely every day."
A Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency spokeswoman said yesterday the Bluff to Invercargill highway was highlighted in 2009 as a road with a high crash rate.
"As a result, a Waka Kotahi safety strategy had identified a number of improvements aimed at saving lives and reducing the number of serious-injury crashes.
"To a large extent over recent years, these appear to have had a positive effect."
As far the agency was aware, Wednesday’s truck and trailer crash might have been caused by "wind factors".
Police were still investigating that accident and in due course would also have information on yesterday’s fatal crash between the truck and car.
Southland road policing lead Senior Sergeant Brent Kingsland said yesterday while these two crashes occurred on the same road, the circumstances surrounding each were quite different.
He understood the difficulty created for the Bluff community when there was an incident that blocked this section of the highway.
"However, crashes can and do occur in multiple locations over New Zealand and we do not believe this specific section of road is the reason.
"While it is the middle of winter, police advise motorists to drive to the conditions and be careful on the roads."
The Bluff Highway was closed for most of the day yesterday and was reopened about 4.15pm.
