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Witness of near miss "How do you design an intersection for morons?"

Author
Melissa Nightingale, NZ Herald,
Publish Date
Sun, 4 Feb 2018, 10:33AM
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Witness of near miss "How do you design an intersection for morons?"

Author
Melissa Nightingale, NZ Herald,
Publish Date
Sun, 4 Feb 2018, 10:33AM

A shocking near-miss at a Whanganui intersection has been caught on camera.

Garage owner Ray Stevens saw the frightening footage after a customer came into his petrol station yesterday and asked if he had seen the incident.

Looking back through his security camera files, Stevens saw a car pulling into the 100km/h intersection just before another car came flying through.

The driver of the second car had to desperately swerve left to avoid a high-speed collision.

The incident happened at the turn-off to Kai Iwi, on the corner of SH3 and Rapanui Rd.

"I said some choice swear words . . . swear words were appropriate for the actions of the driver," Stevens said.

"It's just one simple thing - drivers who aren't looking.

"All they have to do stop, proceeding when the way is clear. It's just easy. But these guys are morons."

Stevens said he sees near-misses at the intersection every 7-10 days, and there have been two crashes there within the past year.

"It's become more and more prevalent. It's complacency. Somebody's either on something or they're just careless.

"The only reason there wasn't an accident there was the skill of the driver in the white vehicle. It was a nice bit of driving."

Stevens said people often blamed crashes on the roads and poured money into improving the roads, but accidents came down to the drivers.

"There's no excuse for being an idiot driver . . . how do you design an intersection for morons?

"There's nothing wrong with the roads . . . [crashes] were caused by idiot drivers, drunken drivers, reckless, stoned. Every single thing in the world but the road."

A police spokeswoman said they had been made aware of the video and would "follow up as appropriate".

"We need every driver on our roads to take responsibility for their own safety, as well as others, whenever they get behind the wheel.

"Don't take any risks and keep 'road safety' at the forefront of your mind.

"If you are travelling on NZ roads and notice dangerous driving behaviour we urge you to ring *555 and report this to police. This enables police to respond in a timely manner and manage the associated risks.

"If you come across a genuine emergency where there is a real risk to someone's life then we would always urge that you contact police via 111."

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