Waka Kotahi video shows the impact of safer speed limits

Nelsonian and former district court judge Bill Unwin shares the impact of witnessing a fatal car crash in new Waka Kotahi video.

The video posted today on Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency's Facebook page focusses on the road harms taking place before the speed limit was dropped between on SH60 between McShane and Maisey Road.

In 2017 Bill Unwin witnessed a fatal crash where two men were killed in a three car crash on SH60 just outside Bill's driveway

"It sounded like a mountain moving, I cant describe it any better and then there was a terrible quietness,"

"It had quite an impact on us, we contemplated selling the house and moving because it (the road) was quite dangerous," he says.

At the time, the speed limit on SH60 between McShane and Maisey Road was 100kmph.

Between 2008 and 2018 eight people were killed and 24 seriously  injured in this area.

"A lot of harm was happening and crashes proportional to a relatively small stretch of road," says the transport manager at Tasman District Council, Jaime MacPherson.

Jaime says in response to the harm and following community consultation the speed limit was reduced to 80kmph in 2018.

"It's almost universally supported, I've heard very little negative feedback," he says.

The video is apart of Waka Kotahi's Road to Zero strategy launched in 2019, with a vision for New Zealand where no one is killed or seriously injured in road crashes.

You can watch the video here.