CR Motors owner Ross Hansen, of Cromwell, said yesterday many tourists were not prepared for the driving conditions they struck on the Lindis or for the cold they had to endure while they waited to be rescued after a crash or breakdown.
''Most of the time, they are pretty cold because ... they don't have warm clothes.''
The road - which has a 57km cellphone black hole - is not the only one in the South without coverage but is the second-highest pass in the South Island with a high level of tourist traffic.
Mr Hansen said he carried out over 100 salvage jobs on the Lindis each year. Many of those he rescued were Japanese or Chinese who did not speak English well.
''They wouldn't have a clue where they are and you have got to try and locate them. It is a dangerous area.''
Mr Hansen said Australian skiers who arrived in Christchurch late in the day were in a hurry to get to Queenstown and sometimes ran out of petrol on the Lindis late at night, not being informed about the lack of fuel stops.
''In midwinter, you get someone stuck in the Lindis and they stay overnight and there's no heater - they'll freeze to death,'' Mr Hansen said.
Rocks falling on to the road were another hazard, he said.
''People ring up and say, 'Oh we've got a flat tyre,' and when we get up there we find the vehicle has got four tyres that are wrecked because they've run over the rocks.''
Mr Hansen said he often referred to his salvage business as ''rescuing the perishing''.
When he started out 42 years ago, the Lindis Pass was a one-lane gravel road with little traffic and it was treated with caution.
Now, he said, it was a tourist highway carrying motorists who were not expecting or prepared for trouble.
Mr Hansen acknowledged the New Zealand Transport Agency had a grit truck stationed on the road around the clock, but he did not have the means of contacting it and was concerned about his own safety and that of other tow truck operators.
''If I have to go in there at say 12 o'clock at night by myself with no cellphone, my wife doesn't know where I am. I could slip off the road and crash and no-one would find me.''
Cromwell Towing and Salvage owner Mark Leyser also supported the call for cellphone services but questioned where the money might come from.
