Private road-safety sign soon removed

Press, 7 December 1985, Page 1

Private road-safety sign soon removed

A Kaiapoi restaurant owner’s campaign for traffic safety provoked a swift reaction from the Rangiora District Council yesterday. Mr Wallace McNeil said he was convinced the road outside his restaurant on the Old Main North Road, 2km north of Kaiapoi, was dangerous. About 1 p.m. yesterday he put up a one-metre-square sign warning northbound motorists to “slow down, suicide bend ahead.”

By 5 p.m. the sign had gone. Mr L. D. Wilson, the Rangiora District Clerk, said he had ordered the removal of the sign after “The Press” had asked him to comment on it.

Mr McNeil’s sign had not complied with the conditions laid down in the District Scheme, and he had not gone through the proper process for having a sign put up, Mr Wilson said.

Mr McNeil said he had tried to go through the right channels and his sign yesterday was a last resort to get some action. He had no plans to put up another sign, but he was amazed the council had acted so quickly. Mr McNeil, a former examiner for the Institute of Advanced Motorists, said an S bend just south of his restaurant had caused hundreds of accidents, and al-

though no-one had been killed, many had been injured.

After an accident on the bend last Monday he had decided to do something to warn motorists.

Mr Gareth James, the Rangiora district engineer, said he had no indication from the traffic department of a problem with the road near the Balmoral restaurant.

Between 1970 and 1983, only three accidents were reported on the section of the Old Main North Road within the council’s area. The accident earlier this week was not attributable to the corner itself, he said.