Rural

Rural roads are different

The road engineering differs in rural places where there can be narrow and unsealed roads. There is also the chance of coming across wandering stock or stock being moved.

Rural roads seem to take its toll on our community. Look at the map to see where these crashes happened.

Black ice

In winter there are many places where black ice forms and because you cannot see black ice, make it extremely dangerous for any driver that may be unaware of it.

(Picture of shaded area for ice)

Kill your speed or it may kill you

When travelling in the country, watch out for changing conditions and decrease your speed to compensate for these conditions.

Although the speed signs on rural roads may indicate a speed limit of 100 km/h, it is in most cases unsafe to drive at that speed!

Farm roads

Farm use has changed over recent years where many farmers have converted to dairy farming. Dairy farms are usually more labour intensive (more people) - therefore more traffic on the roads and the farm equipment being used is sometimes wider than what we expect.

There are narrow bridges, ditches and or trenches and trees all over our rural road network, which increase the risk of injury or death in crashes. These “obstructions” cannot always be removed and therefore it remains the responsibility of drivers to drive slower to the conditions.

Mail boxes could be dangerous

There is also a tendency by rural residents to use solid materials like thick poles or concrete/brick pillars to put their letter boxes on. While it all seem logic to safeguard the letter boxes in that way, it actual creates an extreme hazard for motorists if they crash into them.

It's recommended that owners drill holes at the bottom of the poles just about where the pole comes out of the ground to enable them collapse on impact whenever they are hit by a vehicle. Concrete or brick pillars or metal bars etc should not be used at all.

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