Innocent people are dying due to long delays in installing centre lane barriers on high risk roads, says an outspoken road safety campaigner.
Speaking after yet another fatal accident on SH2 at Kaitoke, where a car crossed the centre line and collided with an oncoming vehicle, Clive Matthew-Wilson says:
"Most of these collisions are easily preventable by the centre median barriers, which are both cheap and easy to install."
"While some sections of the state highway are unsuitable for median barriers because the road is too narrow, other places - such as the site of today's accident - have plenty of room."
“The government could start installing these barriers next week, but the reason they don’t is because, in some places, traffic would be slowed down due to the road being a bit narrower. That’s the reason for the delays: the government views traffic flow as more important than road safety.”
“The government’s traffic engineers think of a road as if it were a water pipe: the more water you can push down the pipe, the better the outcome. These engineers tend to avoid anything that slows down the flow of traffic, even if lives get lost in the process.”
A Monash University study showed that 75% of casualty accidents were reduced by median and/or side barriers.
A wire rope barrier was installed along a 10 km stretch south of Paekakariki in 2005. In the 20 years before it was installed, head-on collisions claimed about 40 lives and around 120 people were seriously injured.
Since the wire rope median barrier was installed, the serious accidents stopped overnight.
Matthew-Wilson, who edits the car review website dogandlemon.com, adds:
“While the government delays building these vital centre barriers, needless road deaths will continue. Every preventable head-on collision on the country’s roads is more blood on the hands of the government.”
