Kaurihohore School

DANGEROUS ROAD CONCERNS

As a school we have long been concerned about the dangerous nature of Apotu Road-SH1 intersection and the sale yards road –SH1 intersection.

Last week, a barrier was erected on the south going lane of the SH 1 rail over pass between Apotu Road and the south end of Sale Yards Road. This has meant that vehicles turning into Sale Yards Road can no longer pull off the road before turning left. Due to poor visibility, vehicles going south can often not see turning traffic until they are right over the bridge hump… by then it is too late to slow (even at the 80k speed limit). A collision can only be avoided by swerving into the north bound lane: disastrous if there is oncoming traffic! Trying to turn right, across, SH1, at the northern end of Sale Yards Road is precarious, at best, as no turning lane available…

There has already been one serious accident and there will be more if we do not act NOW.

 A few years ago we wrote to Transit along with letters from our community to raise our concerns.  At the time we were told that road changes were planned that would increase visibility and make this road safer.  Sadly this has not happened.  As a school we are very concerned about the safety of these intersections and think it is timely for us to again raise our concerns with our local MP and transit again.  We need your help with this.  Please put together letters that raise your concerns and perhaps even give real life accounts of ‘near misses’ you may have had.  If you have neighbours that may not have children that go to our school, but are willing to support us, please ask them to put together their thoughts as well.  The more people we have behind us the better.

You can email your letters to reception@kaurihohoreschool.co.nz or principal@kaurihohoreschool.co.nz 

What can we do?

·       Ring the NZTA on 08004 HIGHWAYS (0800 44 44 49) and tell them of your/our concerns – make yourself known to Jacqui Hori-Hoult Journey Manager at NZTA.

·       When leaving school, take the left hand option, north from Apotu Road onto SH1. Travel past Sale Yards Road to the Fonterra turn off, where a turning lane is available. Turn in, across SH1, and loop back onto the south bound lane of SH 1, exiting at the northern end of Sale Yards Road.

·       Write a letter to support the schools submission.

Please make this your highest priority so that we can get our concerns heard as quickly as possible.