Intersection-accident study

Press, 6 September 1989, Page 9

Intersection-accident study

By

PAM MORTON

The Ministry of Transport’s Christchurch accident investigation team will study accidents at traffic signals to find out why the city has one of the highest collision rates at controlled intersections. Covering 16 intersections, the study is expected to take about two years, says an investigating officer with the team, Mr Tim Hughes.

“What we hope to do is work through the intersections and see if common factors can be drawn,” he said. “No-one in New Zealand has really sat down and said if these things work or they don’t.” Mr Hughes said the intersections to be studied by the group were a representative sample rather than particularly troublesome ones. A new red-light camera

system to be introduced by the Christchurch City Council could make a difference to the number of collisions at traffic signals, Mr Hughes said. The $50,000 camera would take colour slides of red-light runners to be used as evidence in issuing traffic offence notices.-

Motorists would be warned that the camera was working at an intersection. It would be able to be shifted to any one of

four selected intersections. “We do know that in Christchurch we seem to have problems with people running red lights at night,” he said. “That might have something to do with the number of crossroads we have in the city.”

The team would look at all the reported accidents at selected intersections for the last five years, he said.