By Neil Reid, NZ Herald
A push to cut the speed limit near a rural school has ramped up - including art created by students being sent to roading bosses.
Student safety around Ormond School – located on the side of SH2 on the outskirts of Gisborne – has been an increasingly hot issue in recent years.
A regional transport plan monitoring report – prepared for the Gisborne District Council – has again highlighted the issue; revealing some of the illegal speeds motorists pass the school at and the initiatives the school and others are taking to campaign for a lower limit.
The legal speed past Ormond School is 70km/h.
The New Zealand Transport Agency has been urged to drastically reduce that during times when students are coming and going from the school.
“Ormond School, Police and Whiti Ora Tairāwhiti [Sport Gisborne] have supplied letters of support for the purpose of requesting 30km/h variable speed limits on the SH for during school pick-up and drop-off times as well as a safe crossing for those students who need to cross the SH to get to school,” the monitoring report revealed.
“These letters have been passed on to the appropriate teams at NZTA.”
The monitoring report said earlier this year Whiti Ora Tairāwhiti completed an “accessibility workshop” with Ormond School students.
It investigated how they accessed facilities such as the school and the local playground “and barriers they may face”.
“From this workshop, there were concerns raised around the speed of which cars travel on SH2 during school drop off and pick up time and how the students don’t feel safe crossing the SH,” it said.
School students later created their own road safety billboards which have been erected at the school facing traffic coming in both directions.
Students later joined police in using speed radars to capture how fast some motorists sped past the school.
Despite it currently being a 70km/h zone, speeds of 106km/h, 94km/h, 89km/h, 80km/h and 77km/h were recorded.
Last Saturday, Transport Minister Simeon Brown revealed speed limits on many urban and rural roads were to go back by 20km/h under new rules.
It was a move that would get rid of earlier blanket speed limits imposed by the previous Labour government.
But reduced limits around schools during pick up and drop off times would remain.
“The Ministry of Transport has advised me the risk to children is much greater at school pick-up times, and that is why blanket speed limits won’t be enforced outside of those times”, Brown said.
“We’re not going to make the tradie going to work at 4 or 5 in the morning crawl around our suburbs ... that makes no sense.”
Aside from an update on concerns surrounding traffic around Ormond School, the transport monitoring document presented to the GDC also looked at other road safety initiatives across Tairāwhiti.
That included revealed 116 people had attended the Whakamanahia recidivist drink-driving programme in the 2023-24 financial year.
The initiative includes a “crash simulation”.
Most of the referrals to the course come via Corrections, police Youth Aid and local iwi.
The report also highlighted a local drink-driving campaign last summer which featured billboards stating: “Give a #&%!, Arrive Alive, Drive Sober”.
“The campaign was intended to be targeted at those aged between 18 and 30 as this age group is of high risk in serious and fatal crashes where alcohol was a factor. Those aged between 18 and 30 years of age that we engaged with during checkpoints had positive feedback on the campaign.”
A “fatigue stop” was also introduced for those heading to the annual Rhythm & Vines festival and for locals leaving the region on holiday.
No positive results were registered by motorists breath tested.
Funding was provided to provide three E-Bike safety courses for locals aged over 55.
Four students from Tairāwhiti were also funded to travel to the annual Students Against Dangerous Driving conference in Wellington.
The report also featured commentary on the never-ending issue of road quality in the region.
State Highways and other routes have been hit hard by successive storms over the past four years, including 2023′s Cyclone Gabrielle.
Not surprisingly – given the amount of damage and subsequent repairs which are going – 68% of residents who took part in a survey said they were dissatisfied when asked if state highways were fit for purpose.
SH35 has been one route that has suffered significant damage in numerous spots, amplifying damage from previous years which is still in the process of being repaired.
In terms of local roads (not state highways), 70% said they were dissatisfied.
Neil Reid is a Napier-based senior reporter who covers general news, features and sport. He joined the Herald in 2014 and has 30 years of newsroom experience.
