@bruce #77 - Humans tend to learn things a lot easier at an early age. Why on earth you think raising the driving age is a good idea is beyond me - you will end up with worse drivers, not better ones.

Having driven this road twice a day for the last 7 years it is clear the speed limit is too high for that corner especially in the wet. THe corner needs to be straightened so it is not as sharp or the speed limit sign on this corner needs to be reduced.

Other than that its as simple as being a sensible driver and taking responsibility for your own actions.

Andy #80 I love the comment about the road code instructions about turning into the skid. You just can't do it without practice, and it is easy for those of us who can to criticise those who can't. Skid training ought to be compulsory and regular. (And fun.) How else are you going to have the slightest idea of your limits?

bruce #77 The only head-on collision I have ever had was with another car that violently lost control in a straight line on SH 3. It was going uphill so slowly it was holding up a long queue of other traffic. Explain that one! Unusually, we were cruising at around 85 km/h at the time. Each vehicle was travelling at less than 80 km/h at the instant of collision, and I tell you I will remember that impact for the rest of my life. And the hole in the other car's windscreen from the un-belted rear passenger's head. I never want to be involved in anything like that again. But short of divided highways everywhere, there's always that chance.

Like many other who have provided comment - I too know the road very well. It is a very winding, narrow road and people simply need to slow down as required, and drive to the conditions.

I have had people pass me on this road even when I have been doing the speed limit. Yep, those idiots who have "hurry sickness". I just don't get people who feel they have to pass everyone just to get somewhere. Nine times out of ten they don't get anywhere much faster at all. I often end up meeting the passer only one car ahead at the next intersection or set of lights.

My brother tried to get somewhere faster once - his car ended up in two pieces and he ended up dead. Look out for the cross on the slight kink opposite the silverstream tip.

SPEAKING AS A RESIDENT WHO DRIVES THE ROAD REGULARLY, ...i say the whole layout is "a crock". and based on some ancient village goat .track or to overly accommodate eco sensitive tussock estuary conservationist boffins. Is Life worth a strip tussock swamp?

FFS1 Large trucks have no option but to cross the cente line in the path of oncoming. 2 There is a concrete bridgehead jutting within 100 mm of the road at an 80% bend. 3 The lack of barriers at corners with drop-offs , where would expect where persons would be seriously injured if the car left the road. 4 Make the improvements at the obvious corners where the accidents are happening, 5 To PCC/ Transit NZ :Why start to begin an inquiry before you consider taking any actions, Act now or any further carnage be on your reads respectively! Do not be guilty of negligence here! We pay your salaries!. 6 To TRANSITNZ: Is Greys Rd Pauatahanui some sort of DEAD-SPACE that does not appear on any road funding schedule? We want the same standards applied here as any other arterial transit route. Note that is the route of choice for HUTT to NORTH bound traffic and vice versa!. !!!!!!!!!

FYI its a VW Golf not Polo get it right.

I don't get what? Whatever speed you do doesn't matter, you should be able to read a corner and find the best line through it for the conditions. Especially on a blind corner, if you take the apex then you'll have a bit of room to move out. By hitting the apex, I don't mean taking the corner on the limit and 4-wheel-drifting. Idiot.

twr - a licence is not a right. in order to drive a car you should have to demonstrate competency. being able to do a 3-point turn and parallel park does nothing to prepare you for how to respond when you hit a patch of oil in the middle of a corner. oh wait, they wrote in the road code that you should turn into a slide so that'll be good enough, right? face it, some people just can't do certain things in life. it's like saying I have decent grasp of rugby therefore I can demand to be an All Black.

your licence test should involve a wet skid pan and being able to control a slide and emergency braking in the wet, as well as all the other theory parts. if you know your own limits, and those of your car, then it's quite simple to drive within those limits and avoid most problems.

(A different Ross)

I don't know the road, so I had a look at it on Streetview this morning. There's nothing wrong with it. Three possibilities in order of likelihood: 1: Oil or diesel on the wet road - but why didn't somebody do something about it? Many others must have slid on it and got away with it 2: No oil, the drivers knew the road, - just stupid driving 3: The drivers didn't know the road. In this case I have some sympathy with the drivers. The signs for the corner are hard to see, a drab sort of camouflage yellow, in the shade of dark trees. And the arrow indicates a right-and-left "S" bend. In fact the first bend after the arrow is a fast LEFT which obscures the tight right, and the following left is so far away (and fast and open) that it is irrelevant. In other words, the sign is plain WRONG. Of course so are thousands of others up and down the country, and any driver foolish enough to believe them will crash sooner or later. But in this case, the corner is a bit tricky, it is obscured and it deserves proper signage.

We are badly served by our road signs. We have collectively paid a whole bunch of money for them, and we have ended up with a set of dull yellow signs that blend nicely in with the NZ countryside. At night they are so reflectorised that you daren't look at them or you will be blinded by the dazzle. The arrows are misleading and the advisory speeds seem to be drawn out of a hat. In short - worse than useless.

Another example of poor driving skills. Bring on compulsory driver training like the rest of the western world. It must be a hell of a lot cheaper than straightening every road in NZ.

Oh, and George #70, from the landtransport site: "if you’re a male driver you’re one and a half times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than if you’re a female driver."

I laughed.

People blaming poor drivers are right, but they are also wrong. There will always be poor drivers, that is a fact we have to accept. One day you may meet one of those poor drivers yourself: head-on.

So statistically, it is blatently obvious this particular strtech of road will catch bad drivers out, perhaps fatally and tragically.

Therefore, the road/speed limit etc does need to be attended to, and it makes me laugh when they say they need to do more research. What they really mean is they need to dig up some funding, so don't hold your breath. In the meantime, raise the driving age-limit and make getting a license harder, so at least driving skills will improve.

Lastly, it is worth noting many boy racers are superb drivers, but that does not make them safe drivers.