Intersection Crashes Worst In New Zealand

• Invercargill intersections account for 65% of driving incidents in the south.
• Intersection crashes rose to 338 in 2022, despite a drop in overall crash rates.
• Council to discuss safety improvements to tackle intersection crash concerns.

Invercargill City has the highest intersection crash rate in the country, making up 65% of all driving incidents in the south.

A report to the Infrastructure and Projects Committee from manager of strategic asset planning Doug Rodgers said, that while crash trends in overall numbers was trending downward, the severity of crashes at intersections was climbing.

The report examined data between 2019 and 2023 to identify trends and severity, and to look at sites and corridors that either have a history or the potential to increase over time.

Crash rates have decreased from 462 to 336 over that period, but for intersections the total has increased steadily from 237 to 308 over those five years.  2022 was the biggest year recording 338 intersection crashes.

Alcohol and drugs were identified as a contributing factor in 13% of intersection crashes, and the most common cause was failing to give way or stop at an intersection (557 crashes or 40%).

Other factors included merging on approach to an intersection, rear end collisions and same direction turning collisions.

Doug said in his report that crashes at intersections remained a concern, and a deeper analysis of the types of crashes at intersections showed that whilst driver behaviours were a feature, there are engineering solutions to reduce ability of drivers to make poor decisions, such as traffic calming and intersection controls upgrades (e.g. increasing visibility).

Council has made provision in the Long-term Plan budgets for provision of safety improvements to address the challenges of crash rates.

The committee will discuss the findings at its meeting on Tuesday (August 6).