There’s no doubt it’s been an awful few weeks on the roads around Levin, with two fatal crashes just next door to Waikawa Beach in this week alone. On Tuesday 27 November 2018 there was a fatal crash at Ōhau and then within an hour or two another fatal crash, this time between North Manakau Road and Waikawa Beach Road.
State Highway 1 was closed for hours in one spot or the other.
There have also recently been serious or fatal crashes a little up the line near Foxton and Waitārere Beach.
It’s no surprise then that the Mayors of Kāpiti and Horowhenua are calling for action:
The high number of serious motor vehicle crashes, some resulting in fatalities, in less than two weeks on State Highway 1 is totally unacceptable to the communities of Kāpiti and Horowhenua, say Mayor of Kāpiti Coast K. Gurunathan and Mayor of Horowhenua Michael Feyen.
Both mayors are demanding an effective and immediate response from NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) before the heavy holiday traffic heads north.
“That means now,” they said.
The mayors say two fatalities occurred on sections of highway that NZTA would claim have had ‘safety improvements’ carried out in the recent past – at Ōhau and the Waikawa Beach turnoff on the Manakau straight. Local people are of the view and have tried to make NZTA understand that in fact the Waikawa turnoff is now more dangerous than before, the mayors say.
On the community’s behalf the mayors are seeking an urgent meeting with NZTA’s Senior Leadership Team to find a way to make changes before there are more fatalities. Mayors Feyen and Gurunathan believe that it is not simply a matter of reducing the speed limit, rather it is a case of making physical safety improvements.
We all know how much harder it is to turn in and out of Waikawa Beach Road since the last lot of “improvements”. We’ll let you know what, if anything, comes of this.