Another injury crash about 6pm yesterday at a notorious Cromwell intersection has sparked renewed calls for a closer look at the design and layout of the junction of State Highways 6 and 8B.
Constable Chris McAnally, of Cromwell, said it appeared a 4WD vehicle on SH8B had turned right on to SH6, failing to give way to a bitumen tanker travelling straight through from Wanaka to Queenstown.
"It was a split-second away from being a more serious accident or another fatal. The truck hit the rear of the 4WD. If it had been half a second earlier it would have hit the side of the vehicle, similar to what happened in the [double fatal] crash a couple of months ago," he said.
The occupants of the Land Rover 4WD vehicle were Irish tourists, a husband and wife, in their 60s. The driver received "minor to moderate injuries" and was taken to Dunstan Hospital as a precaution. " His wife, and the two people in the truck, were shaken but uninjured, Const McAnally said. The 4WD was a "mangled mess".
A similar crash in January claimed the lives of a 29-year-old Taiwanese man, and a 25-year-old Chinese woman. The man, who was driving the vehicle, failed to give way and turned right, into the path of a courier van travelling south on SH6 from Wanaka. The three passengers in the vehicle were also injured, one of them seriously.
The New Zealand Transport Agency dropped the speed limit at the two highway approaches to Cromwell following that accident, extending the 80kmh speed area past the SH8B and SH6 intersection and across the Deadman's Point bridge through the intersection of SH8 and SH8B.
At that time, transport agency Central Otago manager John Jarvis said the intersection was known as having a high crash rate and had been investigated before, but was a "standard T-intersection ... with a left turn lane, a right turn bay and good visibility".
As well as reducing the speed limit, other options were being considered to change the layout to improve the safety of the intersection.
Asked for comment, Cromwell community board chairman Neil Gillespie said more investigation should be done on the design and layout of the intersection.
"People who travel that route regularly will tell you that not a week goes by without near-misses or crashes there. I don't know what happened in this instance but realise that crashes are an error of judgement. If it's driver error that's at fault, why is it happening so often?"
