Consultants inspect fatal accident site

Press, 8 March 1989, Page 4

Consultants inspect fatal accident site

PA Gore Private consultants will be brought in to inspect a stretch of road near Gore, the scene of a fatal accident on Saturday. The head-on smash claimed the lives of six young men and women from eastern Southland and was the worst accident in the province for nine years. Senior-Sergeant Don Boyd of the Gore police said the cause of the accident was still unclear. “The point of impact is the most crucial thing and that is yet to be established.” Senior-Sergeant Boyd said an Invercargill engineering firm and the Ministry of Transport would

draw up detailed plans of the site. This would show what each driver would have been able to see and would give a professional opinion on the “character” of the road. Employing private consultants was an unusual step but necessary in this case, he said. The circumstances of the accident were complex and the cause far from clearcut. A vehicle examiner would look at both the car and the truck and trailer unit involved in the collision and photographs taken at the scene on Saturday should be available soon. The police have not ruled out the possibility of

making test runs with vehicles at the scene. The truck-driver involved in the accident, Mr David Cole, of Balclutha, had given a statement but there were no independent witnesses to the smash. Senior-Sergeant Boyd said the bend on State highway 96 had speed advisory signs and was no more or less dangerous than hundreds of other corners in the area. He said it was the police’s job to find out if anyone had contributed to the accident and if so, to do something about it. The same stretch of road will also be the subject of a report by the Southland County Council.