Pedestrians blamed for bus collisions

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Pedestrians blamed for bus collisions

3News NZ

Since 2007 54 people have been seriously injured in bus vs pedestrian collisions

Since 2007 54 people have been seriously injured in bus vs pedestrian collisions

Wellington City Council has been listening to a range of measures designed to reduce the number of people hit by buses in the central city.

Since 2007 54 people have been seriously injured, and three killed.

Wellington's Golden Mile - from Lambton Quay to Courtenay Place - is New Zealand's busiest footpath, with over 40,000 pedestrians every day.

Three thousand buses also travel the route. It's a dangerous combination that's seen 230 crashes involving pedestrians between 2007 and 2011.

"It's the Wellington culture," says Insp Peter Baird. "You don't see this happen on [Auckland's] Queen St."

Most recently, New Zealand Bus director Tim Brown was hit on Willis St in July. He suffered serious, life-threatening injuries

Even so, a report delivered to the council this morning points to pedestrian behaviour as a leading cause in many crashes, and has recommended changes to reduce the risk.

It points to four key areas of improvement, including creating safer areas to walk by improving the margin between the footpath and the road, and reducing the speed limit to 20km/h on parts of the Golden Mile.

Watch the video for Jerram Watts' full story.

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Comments

16/08/2012 12:28:55 a.m.

Maria van der Meel wrote:

What is Andy Foster still there? A June 2010 Safety Audit warned the council of Serious Safety concerns for the Willis/Mercer intersection and Bond Street, it also condemned the 3x3 meter lanes between Mercer and Manners Street as too narrow. A Environment Court ruling by Judge Thompson deemed the legal bus width at 2.98 meters including wing mirrors. BANG!! The past president of the Tramways Union referred to the Golden Mile Improvements as unfir for purpose, please sign the e-petition http://www.wellington.govt.nz/haveyoursay/e-petitions/ep/viewsignatures/192

9/08/2012 5:17:07 p.m.

Luke wrote:

Maybe if we unregulated our roads??????? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs16TYCuR1k

9/08/2012 1:43:56 p.m.

Heather wrote:

Even yesterday I saw two people run out in front of buses in Manners Street - come on people! However, last week we were waiting at the corner of Willis and Manners Streets. The traffic light turned red, the green pedestrian man came on so we all stepped out; a man pulled me and another woman back as a bus went through the red light and would have hit us if that man hadn't seen it run the red and grabbed our coats and pulled us back to the footpath - come on bus drivers!

9/08/2012 1:15:39 p.m.

Ruz wrote:

The new bus route that saw the removal of Manners Mall is a botch up caused by the Wellington City Council. Any savings that might have been derived by the marginally shorter route has been outweighed by the costs of the accidents as reported by the Wellingtonian. Andy Foster needs to resign.