Whats going on at SH2 10th, April around 5:00pm

[Zapf]

anyone know what happened at SH2 around 5:00pm on Sunday the 10th?

as we were coming back from the taupo track day, we saw a police car blocked off the Southbound SH1 to SH2 intersection, and then within the next 10mins we saw 5 more cop cars and 1 ambo heading that way

[MikeL]

That would be about the time I came back from Coromandel...
Must have been the police helicopter that spotted me along the Kaiaua straights and radioed ahead...

But I eluded the bastards, hehehehe...

Don't know about the ambo, though, unless they were anticipating something...

[Sensei]

Hummm lot's of cops /Ambo . I'd say crash after a chase maybe
SENSEI

[dveus]

We were diverted through kaiaua --> kawakawa bay, made for a long trip home. Towing a trailer through those roads isn't much fun.

[Ixion]

The Usual.

SH2 maungatawhiri. Big Crash. ... no doubt another fatality on the DEATH ROAD.

I am not intending to be insensitive here (and my condolences to all those affected by fatalities on that road). But, I wish someone would explain to me why there are so many crashs on that stretch of road. I have ridden and driven on it may times (many hundreds I guess), without ever even an "oh shit" moment.

The road itself seems fine, nothing treacherous, the traffic doesn't usually seem any more idiotic than everywhere else . Only tricky thing is sunstrike , but that is the same on any east west road.

What is it about that stretch of road? Am I just incredibly lucky, or is there some "this + this + this" combo that's a killer ?

[Sensei]

Not a bad quess . Not hard tho Hope everyone pull through . I take it they were on Bike's ?? or car
SENSEI

[MikeL]

I have to echo Ixion's comments here. I rode along that stretch of road about 4:30 today. The traffic was relatively light, the weather was perfect and apart from the low sun angle visibility was good. The road configuration, surface, width, curve radii, whatever, don't seem any different from other roads. The only explanation I can think of for the high accident rate is improper overtaking due to impatience and consequent head-on collisions. But can that account for all the accidents???

[Jackrat]

I have to echo Ixion's comments here. I rode along that stretch of road about 4:30 today. The traffic was relatively light, the weather was perfect and apart from the low sun angle visibility was good. The road configuration, surface, width, curve radii, whatever, don't seem any different from other roads. The only explanation I can think of for the high accident rate is improper overtaking due to impatience and consequent head-on collisions. But can that account for all the accidents???

I drive that road several times a week in a truck, and yes I think impatience does account for the vast majority of the accidents.
I've got to the stage were I don't pull over to allow cars to pass or get a better veiw of what's coming because they normaly try to pass without looking first.I lost count of how many times I've pulled over a bit and the ideot
in the car behind me has pulled out straight into on coming traffic.
Also once they've pulled out,on coming traffic or not,they won't pull back.
I've seen it happen a number of times where a driver has started a passing move,seen the on coming traffic an just put their foot down forcing other traffic to move out of their way.
A double yellow line and no passing lanes the whole length of the road, combined with genuine enforcement would save many lives every year.
But on a more happy note,I had a driver in a late model BMW pass me at the very end of a passing lane down there last week.He came from quite a way back an really had to gun it to get by me.When the camera flashed I reckon he was still doing 130-140k,
Ha ha ha

[FROSTY:Me]

no accident-no fatalities--i pushed my (fucked0 van in to the middle of the road and set fire to it.

[Ixion]

I drive that road several times a week in a truck, and yes I think impatience does account for the vast majority of the accidents.

Thing is though, I've not seen more than the "usual" amount of dodgy overtaking/close calls/"what the f*** are you doing" stuff on that road.

Sure, there are impatient idiots out there, but there are on all roads.

What is it about *this* road.

Everytime I go over it Mrs Ixion gives me a lecture about how unhappy she is that I'm going to be going on that "dangerous road". So I pootle along it, being even more of a nana than usual thinking "Dangerous road. Must keep my eyes open for, uh open for, uh watch out for - hell what am I supposed to look out for on this road". And never see anything that would explain the crash rate.

[sAsLEX]

What is it about *this* road.

tired aucklanders, or those commuting to auckland/south???

[Gremlin]

maybe its really considerate cagers from auckland sacrificing themselves (in a nice beautiful spot of course) for the sake of clearing up our roads a bit???

Then again, maybe I was a bad boy for mentioning considerate and cagers in the same sentence...

[Lou Girardin]

I am not intending to be insensitive here (and my condolences to all those affected by fatalities on that road). But, I wish someone would explain to me why there are so many crashs on that stretch of road. I have ridden and driven on it may times (many hundreds I guess), without ever even an "oh shit" moment.

The road itself seems fine, nothing treacherous, the traffic doesn't usually seem any more idiotic than everywhere else . Only tricky thing is sunstrike , but that is the same on any east west road.

What is it about that stretch of road? Am I just incredibly lucky, or is there some "this + this + this" combo that's a killer ?

The road is fine. It's just that it's used by "oh shit" drivers. A prime example was Michael Kings accident, no excessive speed, dry road, easy bend and he still drove straight into the trees. Sooner or later the Govt will have to realise that we have badly trained, badly tested and just plain bad drivers.
I don't think putting double yellows the length of the road would help much. As it is, people make risky overtaking manouevres now because they know that there's a yellow line ahead. And in their wisdom Transit put double yellows the length of the safest places to pass.
Everyone except Transit NZ knows that the road urgently needs an upgrade to four lanes.

[Ixion]

One of sunday's crashes here involved a motorcycle . Anyone know anything ?

The other one (Granny says) was two cars BOTH TOWING TRAILERS colliding head on.

WTF. How could two trailer-towers collide head on. What on earth were they thinking of.

Occurs to me that is one thing about that road. Compared to most open road there's an awful lot of towing vehicles. Is that part of the problem?

[750Y]

yesterday there were 2 accidents there. the first at 4;30-5ish was bike t-boned car at lyons rd(hunua turn-off) just after mangatawhiri. it was my 72yr old mother in law coming to my place who turned right across the bikes path. the guy was status 2, they were gonna call out the chopper but downgraded him to status 3 and sent the ambulance.
not long after that there was a 2 car head on near to the waikato side of the bottom of the bombays.