Forty

May 30, 2023

For 20 years, lifestyle block owner John Kuipers has been keeping a staggering tally. Earlier this month, the number of vehicles which had crashed onto his property hit 44.

During the worst period, two cars crashed in a day, three in week, and eight in a month.

“I gave up reporting every one to the council, because they just fell on deaf ears,” Kuipers told Stuff.

“I’ve always said to council, sooner or later someone is going to get killed down there, at the end of the day it’s your road, you’re supposed to protect road users on your road.”

Kuipers lives on River Terrace Rd, in Brightwater, on a 45kph corner which is signposted and routinely taken at speed.

To date, there have been 39 cars, two vans, two motorbikes, and one mini field truck through his fence. Most go unreported.

Sometimes those who are driving have taken drugs, or driven drunk, or just driven carelessly, said Kuipers.

If they have been found to be under the influence, their insurance won’t pay up, Kuipers explained. Other cars have been stolen, or unregistered and uninsured.

That has meant he’s been out of pocket, and often spending hours of his own time cleaning up glass, towing vehicles, re fencing his paddocks and replanting vegetation.

His worst fear is that his cattle will escape through a hole in the road and cause further accidents.

“You’ve always got it in the back of your mind every time you hear a big bang or a big clank,” Kuipers said.

“You think ‘oh shit, that’s another one gone’. Usually you can see headlights if it’s in the dark.”

The accident-prone spot arose in a recent meeting of the Tasman District Council’s operations committee, with chairperson councillor Christeen Mackenzie commenting that it seemed “absolutely ridiculous,” and that there was “obviously a serious issue with that piece of road.”

Councillor Chris Hill said she thought about the cost to the farmer and the fence, and how it must be stressful to have to deal with that all the time.

Transportation manager Jamie McPherson said staff were pleased that the landowner had told them about the accidents, as most of the crashes would be non injury and wouldn’t end up in the accident database.

The council had a very modest budget of about $35,000 a year to address roadside hazards, and this corner was a “prime candidate” for some guardrail.

“Our focus is really on reducing fatal and serious crashes, but just judging by what's happened at that corner, on River Terrace Rd, there is a high risk of any one of those crashes being much more serious, so it will be good to treat that.”

The cost to treat the curve with guardrail is $35,000, the report said, which would be programmed this year.

Outside the meeting, McPherson said the national crash database had three recorded crashes on this curve in the period 2013 to 2023. Of these crashes, two in 2015 and 2019, resulted in minor injuries. One crash in July resulted in serious injury.

Six crashes had also occurred on the next curve, although vehicles leaving the road here would not potentially tumble down a bank, he said.

Better signs and delineation are to be installed on these curves in addition to the guardrail above the bank.

Kuipers is happy that some measures will finally be put in place to protect his property and road users – but told Stuff he’ll be watching this space.

“You can’t foolproof idiots can you?” he said.