A group lobbying for safer rural roads is calling for more money to spent on Northland roads after the worst weekend road fatality in 30 years, in which ten people were killed in crashes.
A logging truck on Wright's Road. Photo: RNZ / Lois Williams
The Pipiwai Titoki Advocacy for Community Health and Safety wants two roads in to be fully sealed, to stop dust from logging trucks.
Spokesperson Alex Wright said the local bus driver had to make sure there were no oncoming log trucks, before children get off at their stop.
"This is a designated logging route and a school bus route, where the bus driver has one hand on the steering wheel, and one on the radio telephone to see where the next logging truck is on her journey."
However the Transport Agency's head of road safety, Ernst Zollner, said if the solution was cheap, it would have been done years ago.
Deputy chair of Local Government New Zealand Brendon Duffy said councils were struggling to balance the costs.
"We have been hammered for years by our nation, in terms of: don't spend too much money, don't let the rates go up, and on the other hand, we get hammered to make sure we have a network up to standard."
Mr Duffy said the challenge was to find millions of dollars to fix rural roads.
