Media has a lot to answer to regarding the wording of articles, and what they don't write. I'll put my left nut on the slab to say 99% of truckies avoid accidents daily. If I held my line when driving, I could probably be hit by another vehicle 3 out of 5 days. Passing lanes are the worst areas. Friends ask what I'd do if I had a serious accident. I tell them I don't know and it's not if but when. Doing over 120000 km a year it's a numbers game and unfortunately my number will come up one day
snoopy221,
Feb 25, 12:53pm
The effect on drivers who are involved in fatal accidents for which they are not responsible can be traumatic and long-lasting. For many it can ruin their lives as they find themselves unable to drive a truck again
Sadly that is a fact as to the poor truckie who took out all of the tourists mmmmmm recently in tokoroa area and the truckie who took out the tourists again rather recent in upper north mmmmmm
Tis a blip on the radar with tourists?
But hey with X tonne of logs abourd and suddenly finding them on YOUR side of the road end result is fatal and mind numbing.
henderson_guy,
Feb 25, 5:38pm
Fact is, a truck just can't swerve out of the way like a car can, and physics dictate that the results are going to be much much worse.
tamarillo,
Feb 25, 6:18pm
When a truck indicates left and pulls over even a bit, right in the middle of my favourites twisty roads, I pass. Often I cannot know it is safe to pass, I can't see what truck can and there isn't room. But I pass. Car or bike. Such is my trust in them.
It's not now, nor was it ever "Hell Highway" it's just a piece of road where too many people take silly risks, and good road at that.
henderson_guy,
Feb 26, 6:44am
I just hope I'm not driving the truck that she goes under. One of my colleagues was involved in the one in pahoia before Anniversary wknd, was pretty horrific by all accounts
philltauranga,
Feb 26, 8:17am
Its been nicknamed this for as long as Ive been driving trucks in BOP, feel free to jump in the passenger seat of my truck and judge for yourself, or even better, when I take a 5m wide load down this piece of road next week and you will see why its called what it is. Hard to fault the road, its the people on it. (don't mean to offend your religion, but it is what it is)
purple666,
Feb 26, 8:27am
Yes no where to pass and always plenty of slow camper vans between here and Waihi.
Here being Tauranga.
morticia,
Feb 26, 8:35am
I said it was the people. I've driven it, been driven on it in cars and trucks for most of my 50 years. Like many, I have my own horror stories and they all involve drivers doing stupid things on a perfectly decent piece of road. Tonight they are calling it "the flying mile" but it used to be called Sound Barrier Hill because all the youngsters used to go as fast as they could down it to "break the sound barrier". Speed was always an issue. Any old truckies, like my old man, could tell you many stories of what life was really like driving big loads on it in their comparatively primitive trucks in the late 40s/early 50s, back before it was a good road like it is now.
urbanrefugee54,
Feb 26, 8:35am
I had to google to find out where it is. not a bit of road I've used a lot. went down past Dunedin recently & was several behind a truck - wasn't the truck that was the problem, it was the 2x vehicles with trailers that were in front of him, & when they got into passing lanes, one would get into the left lane & the other into the right lane - in the end one of them pulled over totally [many k's down the track], but the other was going real slow in front of truck & all of us could feel his frustration [and ours] of not being able to pass until they turned off. to me it's the truckies of this country that deliver my food, my essential items, as well as the parts to fix the toys I play with. [horses, dogs, 4wd's & bits to fix the trailer].
philltauranga,
Feb 26, 9:25am
Yea I should have clarified I edited the "people" bit in to show I agree with you about the cause of all the problems this stretch of road seems to have. Ive only been here in BOP for 10 years so don't know what it "was" like but Ive done a few trips down "Old Highway Rd" which I assume as its named was the old highway, like most of our original roads its a goat track, even for those "primitive" trucks they had back then.
stevo2,
May 26, 10:59am
I travel that stretch of road most days and although its not a bad road, its not good enough for the amount of traffic it handles. The area around "The Flying Mile" will often see 40kph on my speedo as the larger trucks struggle to get up the hills and have a build up of traffic behind them. There are only a couple of passing lanes on the whole road and there will often be a speed camera van sitting at the end of one of them so very few cars actually get to overtake. The other common spot for the camera van is next to the bridge in the middle of the flying mile. The road is a winding and hilly busy state highway and there are very few overtaking opportunities anywhere. Coupled with the fact there are often tractors towing sprayers to the various orchards, along with the fact so much traffic uses it (especially at peak times), Im not surprised at the amount of accidents
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