SH1 Timaru to St Andrews safety improvements

23 November 2023

Kia ora

To our project subscribers - please watch your speed and wear your seatbelt.

This month police are adopting a 'spot-and-stop' policy in Canterbury: drivers will be pulled over if they are detected speeding and checks carried out to see if they and their passengers are also wearing seatbelts.

This includes roads in Timaru District.

Inspector Natasha Rodley, Road Policing Manager for Canterbury says as we head toward the end of the year, people can get distracted thinking about Christmas and holidays coming up.

'We know that even low-level speeding will have a significant effect on the outcome of a crash and the injuries received.'

Crash analysis data shows that speed is one of biggest contributing factors to road deaths and serious injuries in Canterbury, with one in five fatalities in the district from 2018-2022 attributed to excessive speed.  It was a more common cause of fatal deaths for the period than alcohol (11.9 %), distraction (4%) and fatigue (4.2%).

Restraints, such as seatbelts, play a significant role in reducing deaths or serious injuries too. Over the same period, there were 47 deaths and 82 serious injuries where restraints were not worn.

'Wearing a seatbelt increases the chances of surviving a crash by 40%,' Ms Rodley says.

Waka Kotahi, Police, the Ministry of Transport and councils are working together to reduce deaths and serious injuries by 40% on New Zealand roads by 2030.

To reduce road deaths and injuries we're working on all parts of the transport system - roads, vehicles, speeds and people.

While not all crashes can be avoided, a safe transport system protects everyone, even if we make a mistake.

Please feel free to give other people in Timaru and Canterbury the heads up and forward on this update.

Kā mihi

The Project Team.

Community drop-in session at Pareora, 28 September

What's happening with the highway safety improvements?

During September and October we asked you if there was anything we needed to consider before progressing plans to make SH1 from Timaru to St Andrews safer.

We received lots of useful information. Thank you for this. We've read through and considered everyone's feedback and we're very close to updating you on what we heard, what we're doing with this information and next steps for the project.