A Waikato fire officer says people have died because of a lack of median barriers as pressure continues to grow on New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) to install them at a faster rate.
Data from NZTA showed cars hitting the median barrier on the Waikato Expressway have increased significantly over a four-year period. In 2018, the annual total was 24, in 2019 it was 59, 114 in 2020 and 149 in 2021.
AA Road Safety spokesperson Dylan Thomsen can't explain why more people are hitting the barriers but is happy they're doing their job.
"That was kind of a mysterious thing for us, we've definitely seen a big increase in the numbers that are striking the median barriers on the Waikato Expressway," Thomsen told AM co-host Melissa Chan-Green.
"I can't explain exactly why we're seeing more people hitting the barriers, but what we do know is that the barriers are doing their job."
Thomsen said the barriers are doing their job and making a huge difference in reducing the number of serious crashes.
"When you put a median barrier down a road, generally you're looking at about a 60 percent plus a reduction in fatal and serious crashes," he said.
"They just like if you're going skydiving, you want to reserve parachute. You don't want to have to use it, you want everything to go right but if things go wrong, that median barrier, is that last line of defence, that can stop you from going head-on into another vehicle."
Appearing on AM alongside Thomsen, Cambridge chief fire officer Dennis Hunt said the median barriers have made a "huge difference".
"We used to attend a lot of serious accidents, a lot of head-on between here [Cambridge] and Hamilton. This median barrier they've put in on the expressway has made a huge difference to us," Hunt said.
"All our accidents now are happening on the same side of the road, all going in the same direction, so we've only been to a couple of serious accidents. We haven't been to any fatalities from Cambridge to Hamilton side for many years now."
Hunt said the lack of median barriers in Karapiro had lead to people dying.
The Government's Road To Zero safety strategy had a target of adding 1000 km of median barrier to high-risk roads by 2030 but had added less than 100km in the first three years.
Thomsen said the target wasn't that "ambitious", but it will help.
"Well, to be honest, the AA didn't actually think that aiming for 1000km in this decade was a hugely ambitious target, but a 1000km added to our highways is going to make a good difference," Thomsen said.
"The problem is we're not delivering them and installing barriers fast enough … from the AA's perspective, the stats speak for themselves, these things work, they make a huge safety difference. We need to be installing them much quicker and much more all around the country."
NZTA has a lot on their plate including road maintenance, fixing potholes and installing median barriers but Thomsen said they should be doing multiple things to make New Zealand's roads safer for Kiwis.
"I don't want to sound like a politician when I'm talking here, but it's not about just picking one thing and saying that's it," he said.
"The maintenance is a huge priority, but also upgrading our roads needs to be right up there as well in terms of priorities … but there are also other improvements, things that we can do to just make our highway network safer and more modern and compare to a whole bunch of other international countries."
Watch the full interview with Dylan Thomsen and Dennis Hunt above.
