A tragic King’s Birthday road toll has a regional leader questioning whether automated road safety measures are being positioned where communities need them most, to reduce fatalities and crashes.
By Rebecca Hogan, Local Democracy Reporter
The holiday road toll reached seven over the long weekend; marking the worst King’s Birthday road toll since 2016. The deadliest incident occurred on State Highway 1 near Waiouru early on Monday morning where three people died.
Ruapehu mayor Weston Kirton brought this tragedy to the Horizons Regional Council regional transport committee meeting on Tuesday, where NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi presented its annual report.
Kirton questioned the transport agency over its decision to not install speed safety cameras at the site of the deadly crash on the Desert Rd, and to instead install two automated cameras at different spots in the region.
“We lost three lives over the weekend on the Desert Road – is it fair to say priority should be given to high risk locations where fatalities take place on a regular basis?”, asked Kirton.
NZ Transport Agency director of regional relationships Linda Stewart told Kirton there were 17 sites selected for the installation of these cameras around the country based on collective data from speed and technical assessments.
While acknowledging the "exceptional serious crashes“ over the long weekend, Stewart said the transport agency couldn’t comment on specifics from the Desert Rd tragedy or how it could have been prevented while the investigation was ongoing.
Stewart explained locations for the automated systems were selected partially from speed surveys which revealed 15% of all vehicles at the selected sites were travelling over or significantly higher than the speed limit.
Work had been completed for the installation of the new average speed safety cameras between Sanson and Foxton on SH1, with camera poles and cameras to be installed and active from the beginning of October this year.
Funding had also been secured for cameras to be installed and functional from October on a key route between Bulls and Hunterville.
Regional police had been consulted during the selection of these sites, with Stewart highlighting the SH1 site between Sanson and Foxton had been selected based on the high level of police already deployed along this road to try and keep drivers speeds down.
Police were said to be supportive of the two sites in the Horizons region as it meant police resources could be reduced at these known hotspots and redeployed at other locations of interest.
Based on national statistics from the Ministry of Transport, Manawatū/Whanganui had the third highest number of fatal crashes in 2025 alongside Canterbury with 32 people having died in the region.
Waikato had the highest number of road deaths with 62.
– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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