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Warning signs for black spot BY LINDA CLARKE
LINDA.C@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
Hoops says goodbye P27
A dangerous rural Mid Canterbury intersection that claimed the lives of three people in 2014 is about to receive special advanced warning safety signs. A mother and two girls died four years ago when a Dutch tourist drove through a stop sign on Somerton Road and hit their vehicle on Thompsons Track. They were on their way to Lake Ohau for the long Queen’s Birthday weekend. A four-way partnership between the Ashburton District Council, the New Zealand Transport Agency, ACC and AMI will soon result in the erection of flashing
signs on Somerton Road, warning drivers that a stop sign is ahead. Similar signs have been trialled in Selwyn and the low-cost high-visibility treatment has been successful in changing driver behaviour at other rural intersections. Preliminary work has already been carried out on Somerton Road and the signs should be in place this month, in time for the extra traffic expected on Thompsons Track when Mt Hutt Skifield opens. Ashburton District Council roading manager Brian Fauth told councillors yesterday the intersection had already been singled out for safety improve-
ments by council but that work was on hold pending the installation and success of the signs. “We were going to improve it but ACC and NZTA got together and decided they wanted to use it as a test pilot case for the flashing warning signs. The signs will say ‘stop ahead’.” Data on driver behaviour will be collected prior to and after the signs are installed to show their effect. There have already been five crashes at the intersection this year, the most recent in March when four people were injured when a car and a truck collided there.
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