The owner of a lodge overlooking the Tekapo-Twizel Highway has voiced frustration over the alarming number of preventable accidents, following two recent bus crashes involving dozens of tourists.
Two buses, part of a three-coach convoy, rolled within a hundred metres of each other shortly after 8:30 am on Thursday. Fifteen people were rushed to hospital, with two sustaining serious injuries.
Lakestone Lodge owner Mike Bacchus told chrislynchmedia.com the two bus accidents were not isolated incidents.
He said black ice had been a factor in multiple collisions within close proximity to Lakestone Lodge over the past two weeks.
It follows the tragic fatalities over Easter and numerous other accidents throughout the year.
The Lake Pūkaki resident described the Tekapo-Twizel Highway as a windy stretch around Lake Pukaki, heavily trafficked due to its location on the main route between Christchurch and Queenstown.
The road offers some of New Zealand’s most iconic views to Aoraki/Mt Cook but also presents significant hazards, especially during winter with temperatures dropping as low as -20 degrees Celsius.
“Most locals will recall many near misses,” Bacchus said, “It is an incredibly seasonal climate, and the locals understand and adjust their driving to the conditions – we communicate via Facebook Community Groups and talk to each other. But unfortunately, those not based here don’t truly grasp the realities of driving here, particularly in the winter months when the black ice is unforgiving.
“In the past two weeks alone, black ice has been a factor in two head-on collisions and two single-vehicle rollovers near our lodge.
And let’s not forget the incredibly sad four fatalities over Easter. There are many more crashes at all times of the year.”
Bacchus pointed out that visitors often do not grasp the realities of driving in these harsh conditions, particularly in winter when black ice is prevalent.
The highway also faces challenges during other seasons, with high visitation, campervan traffic, and high winds creating dangerous driving conditions.
“We need NZTA to review this section of road urgently,” Bacchus said. “It is currently a 100km area, and there are busy junctions along the way that the locals know to slow down for, but visitors do not.
The current situation is not working.” He suggested the implementation of variable speed limits that can be adjusted according to the conditions, noting that there must be overseas examples of effective measures in similar environments.
In addition to road safety, Bacchus raised concerns about the lack of seatbelts on local school buses.
He criticised the Ministry of Education for replacing buses equipped with seatbelts with inner-city buses that lack them. “We couldn’t believe in today’s world where you are encouraged to have the safest cars you can purchase and kids use car seats with five-point harnesses, that our school buses don’t have seatbelts,” Bacchus said.
Despite having safe and competent bus drivers, Bacchus said the lack of seatbelts posed a significant risk to children, especially given the hazardous driving conditions in the area. ”
“Last year, the Ministry of Education took over the running of the local school buses and replaced the fit-for-purpose buses with seatbelts to inner-city buses that don’t even have seatbelts.
“It just seems crazy that to drive a five-year-old into school, they need to be in a five-point harness, but on the school bus, we would wish them luck and hope to see them again in one piece at the end of the day,” he said.
Bacchus referenced the efforts of Pip Cameron, an Otematata mother who campaigned in 2021 to make seatbelts mandatory on school buses. Despite these efforts, new school buses in New Zealand are still being made without seatbelts, and the capability to retrofit them is not guaranteed.
Local community members had offered to retrofit the Twizel buses with seatbelts through fundraising efforts but were informed by the Ministry of Education that even if this were done, there would be no guarantee that these buses would remain in Twizel.
