Crossing the centre line a big crash factor - Fire chief

A fire chief who works one of the most notorious stretches of road in the country reckons people crossing the centre line are one of the main causes of crashes. The Government is investing one-point-four billion dollars in safety upgrades of dangerous roads over the next three years. The Safe Network Programme aims to make almost 900 kilometres of busy, dangerous state highways safer by 2021 with measures such as median and side barriers, rumble strips and widening road shoulders. One of the upgrades is a 15-kilometre stretch of State Highway One in the Dome Valley, north of Auckland between Warkworth and Wellsford. Warkworth's chief fire officer is Ian Davies, has been working in the job for 39 years. He told our reporter Tom Furley that he doesn't think speed is the main factor.