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The Napier-Taupō Highway was not on New Zealand’s most dangerous roads list, despite the fact that it recorded eight deaths in the space of a year. But that hasn’t stopped a police officer from wanting to make the road a safer place for drivers. Stuff reporter Georgia-May Gilbertson joined agent Steven Knox on the road, after his idea for the Stay Alive on 5 safety campaign came to fruition last year.
Steven Knox never tires of driving the famous State Highway 5, also known as Napier-Taupō Road.
He knows every curve, every driveway, every passing lane, and every rest stop, and his idea of keeping the road safer has now been launched into an official road campaign.
The highway police officer is one of the guards monitoring the 127-kilometer stretch of the highway, which has seen eight deaths and 40 seriously injured during 2020.
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Knox said 355 accidents occurred on the eastern section of the road (the first 69 km of the road from Bay View to the border) between 2015 and 2019.
Forty-eight of them resulted in serious injury or death, 238 had high-risk behavior as a factor, 78 had speed as a factor, 277 were single-party involved, and 312 crashes occurred during non-holiday periods.
Knox said the highest accident rate is between Te Pohue and Tarawera.
His idea for the ‘Stay Alive on 5’ campaign was officially launched last October, in an attempt to keep drivers safer on the road.
It was endorsed by the New Zealand Police, along with Waka Kotahi – New Zealand Transportation Agency (NZTA), Road Safe Hawke’s Bay, the Taupō District Council and many other agencies.
Georgia May Gilbertson / Stuff
Highway patrol officer Steven Knox regularly monitors State Highway 5 and his idea for ‘Stay Alive on 5’ was launched in a safety campaign last year.
The sun was shining when we left Napier on Wednesday morning in a marked police car. But 50 km later, the road was covered in rain as traffic forced its way through strong gusts of wind.
“That’s why we say drive according to the conditions, the weather on the road always changes,” Knox said.
Traffic was light, but the patched potholes in the hills and hairpin bends in the road did not go unnoticed.
Every day 3,500 vehicles, including heavy trucks, have to travel on the road. Knox acknowledged that the condition of State Highway 5 was “not excellent,” with its uneven surfaces and recurring potholes.
“But it’s the path we have and we have to deal with it for now.”
Road surveillance was a personal crusade for Knox, who lost a friend in the 1980s after a drunk driver struck and killed her in a head-on collision near Napier.
He joined the police six years ago with the motivation to improve road safety.
As part of Stay Alive on 5, the number of police officers on the road has increased, twelve road safety billboards have been placed along the road and new electronic signs have been installed urging drivers to slow down, especially in tight corners.
Knox said fatigue is an ongoing problem, and police regularly receive complaints about dangerous driving.
Georgia May Gilbertson / Stuff
Traffic Police Officer Steven Knox regularly monitors State Highway 5.
“We stopped a guy who had traveled from Tauranga and was on his way to Wairoa. If we hadn’t intercepted it, there would have been a crash.
We told him he had to rest for an hour before continuing and we didn’t get any calls after that, so I think he followed the advice of the police. “
But not all drivers pay attention to the police, especially when it comes to speed.
“Recently, one of our officers searched a guy who was going about 135 km, and minutes later I searched him, right at the end of the road. I asked him why he was speeding and he said, ‘I thought that other guy was the only cop on the road.’
Patrols were on the road in the morning and at night, as Knox said a third of the previous crashes occurred after dark.
John Cowpland / Stuff
Eight people died and 40 people were seriously injured on the Napier-Taupō highway in 2020.
Knox said he had noticed a “slight difference” since the campaign’s introduction, but that “there was still a long way to go.”
Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst supported the campaign and police were doing “an incredible job” of monitoring the speed and behavior of drivers on the road.
“We still want to see the long-term improvements made, but this is a really positive step forward for the short term.”
Waka Kotahi NZ Transportation Agency Regional Transportation Systems Manager Oliver Postings said he was satisfied with the Stay Alive on 5 campaign and that there had been no serious accidents on State Highway 5 during the holiday period.
John Cowpland / Stuff
There have been eight deaths on the Napier-Taupo highway in the last year.
NZTA would continue to seal and rebuild parts of the road, including the Tarawera Hill area, the passing lane south of the Mohaka Bridge and Titiokura Summit, with the hope that the work will be completed in April.
“We expect to announce a package of security enhancements in the coming months. This will add to the repair and resurfacing work. “
A technical assessment of the current speeds on SH5 had been completed, and NZTA would soon communicate with the public about what the appropriate speed limit for the road might be.
“Speed is the biggest road safety problem in New Zealand today – drivers are traveling too fast for the conditions. Speed is a factor in every crash, ”Postings said.
SH5 regular truck driver Antony Alexander said the campaign was one all drivers should embrace.
“Every day or night, we see risky and / or dangerous maneuvers that survive by sheer luck, not good driving, and it is those risky maneuvers that, at some point, will result in a major accident that will inevitably be first on the scene. . “
Only one person received a ticket Wednesday, not from Knox, but from one of his colleagues later on.
But the next morning, Knox fined two people, the first going 73km in a 30km zone, who faced a hefty $ 510 bill and 50 demerit points. The second was fined for traveling 148 km in a 100 km zone.
The driver was fined $ 630 and 50 demerit points.
