Rural Intersection Activated Warning Signs Installed
South Island’s first Rural Intersection Activated
Warning Signs installed
Electronic
warning signs have been installed at the intersection of
Buchanans Road and State Highway 73 as part of a two-year
trial to improve safety at the intersection where there have
been 19 crashes in 10 years.
The Rural Intersection
Activated Warning Signs (RIAWS) are designed to reduce the
severity of crashes at high-risk rural intersections by
reducing the operating speed on the main road, says the NZ
Transport Agency (NZTA) Canterbury/West Coast State Highway
Manager Colin Knaggs.
Of the 19 recorded crashes
from 2003 to 2012, one was fatal; four resulted in serious
injury and six minor injuries. The remaining eight were
non-injury.
Mr Knaggs says safety improvements on
high-risk rural roads and at high-risk intersections are a
key area of focus in the NZTA’s Safer Journeys strategy
which aims to create a road system free of death and serious
injury, while introducing the Safe System approach to New
Zealand.
“The Safe System approach means that
wherever possible the potential for serious injury should be
reduced.
“The greatest proportion of intersection
crashes within high-speed environments are crossing or
turning crashes between two vehicles and we know that the
risk of serious injury or death from side impact crashes
increases significantly above 50km/h.”
Two trial
sites for the new signs have been identified in New Zealand
- the other being on State Highway 1 and Route 56 at
Himatangi, north of Foxton.
“When a vehicle on
Buchanans Road approaches the intersection, the electronic
signs on SH73, about 150m each side of the intersection,
will flash and display a 70km/h speed limit. Traffic on the
state highway will need to slow to this speed, thus reducing
the impact speed should a collision occur.
“If
there are no vehicles on the Buchanans Road approach, the
open road speed limit of 100km/h will apply.”
The
RIAWS trial contributes to two of the Safe System
cornerstones - safe speeds and safe road
use.
ENDS