Garden sprinklers in parts of the main street were left on overnight Sunday before temperatures dropped to -4.2° on Monday morning, causing the water to freeze on the road.
That morning, in a social media post, the council warned motorists to "keep your speed down and increase your following distance" as there was black ice on roads throughout the district.
The council said they had received reports that streets around Gore and Mataura were affected.
"The Hyde St/Main St roundabout, in Gore and Bridge St/Kana St intersection are quite bad."
One person commented that having the sprinklers at the Hyde St/Main St roundabout going at midnight "wasn’t ideal".
Another person commented they called the council’s emergency after hours line to report that the sprinklers were on, but that had been a "waste of time".
"Considering the lady I spoke to had no idea where I was talking about I didn’t have hope. What’s the point in having a afterhours line. [sic]"
The council added a comment that it would look into what happened.
Today parks and recreation manager Keith McRobie said the sprinklers should have been turned off for winter.
"We appreciate the potential dangers caused by the sprinklers going on a night when temperatures plummeted below freezing and we will put processes in place to ensure that our garden sprinklers are deactivated in winter in the future."
- Ben Andrews
