A prominent road safety campaigner has blamed poor road design for a fatal accident in Southland. Two Italian tourists drove through a compulsory Stop sign, killing a local farmworker.

Clive Matthew-Wilson, who edits the car review website, dogandlemon.com, says.

“Judging from photos of the accident, it would be frighteningly easy to miss the intersection. There are no markings on the road, just a tiny Stop sign, which would be very easy to miss if you weren't used to New Zealand rural roads.”

“Given how many tourists are going to be driving these roads, it’s critical that these tourists are given plenty of warning before major intersections. It’s highly likely that good signage, road markings and rumble strips on the road would have prevented this crash entirely.”

“It’s not good enough for the police to simply prosecute tourist drivers after the crash. These were not drunken hoons. They were tourists who simply failed to see a poorly marked intersection. There have been multiple crashes at the same site, and the local fire chief had already warned the authorities about this intersection.”

“Aside from improving signage at intersections, the government needs to urgently install horizontal rumble strips, to alert drivers that a compulsory stop intersection is looming. Multiple studies have shown these strips are highly effective at slowing vehicles and alerting drivers that a major intersection is just ahead.”

Matthew-Wilson adds:

“Many New Zealand rural roads are like a staircase without a handrail: you make a simple mistake and there’s a high chance of getting hurt. Doubtless the authorities will rush to fix this particular intersection, but there's a thousand more waiting to kill some innocent motorist."