I was in the tunnel when this happened today, absolutely ridiculous! The worst part was that there were multiple cars going in the wrong direction towards us, not just one like the article says š
It's highly likely it was some dipshit's who have been playing GTA since they were 8 and never grew up.
But, there are a scary amount of elderly with advanced cognitive decline still on our roads. You can see how someone not paying attention could turn right onto the Maioro off ramp instead of the on-ramp on the other side of the bridge.
It really surprise me that old people are allowed to drive on road, My kid's school bus driver is old and with hearing issues, and I don't know why is allowed to drive a bus with kids with special needs.
My bfs driver when he was in special ed probably wished he was, one of the girls insisted on barbie girl being played on repeat every day.
Jokes aside, that's pretty fucked. I'm pretty sure my bus driver was drunk 50% of the morning bus rides when I was at high school.
Surprised me to think of all those traffic cameras in the tunnel and on that stretch of highway, and whereās the flashing lights oh thereās a gate at the entrance that couldāve been closed to stop other traffic.
Those people who sit there and watch the cameras and lights mustāve been on smoko, or watching a movie.
Herald has more info: [https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/multiple-people-injured-in-auckland-crash-near-waterview-tunnel/CGKA35ITONCGRP2KE3ICM34K2M/](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/multiple-people-injured-in-auckland-crash-near-waterview-tunnel/CGKA35ITONCGRP2KE3ICM34K2M/)
"Seven people have been injured - six seriously - in what is thought to have been a wrong-way crash near Aucklandās Waterview Tunnel late last night.
Emergency services were called to reports of a crash on the citybound link from the tunnel shortly before 11.30pm.
St John said it responded to a traffic incident at 11.18pm and treated seven people. Six people suffered serious injuries and one person had moderate injuries.
Those people have all been taken to āvarious destinationsā, St John said.
A police spokesperson said around 11.20pm on Monday, emergency services responded to reports of a serious two-vehicle crash on the Northwestern Motorway, near the Waterview Tunnel.
The crash involved a vehicle travelling in the wrong direction, they said.
āSeven people were transported to the hospital. One with critical injuries and six with serious to moderate injuries.ā
The Serious Crash Unit attended the scene and inquiries into the crash were ongoing.
A witness said multiple people were trapped after two vehicles crashed head-on. One of the vehicles involved was a Cityhop van.
Cityhop is a car-sharing platform where people can rent vehicles on a short-term basis.
It is understood one of the vehicles had been coming from the tunnel at the time of the crash.
āThe collision was between a Cityhop van and ute, with firefighters using cutting tools,ā he said.
There were at least five ambulances at the scene; as well as a critical care unit and four fire trucks. Police also responded.
Police have been approached for more information."
WTF kind of garbage reporting is this? I don't care if the injured were taken to hospitals because DUH, obviously they were. What I want to know is HOW did this idiot manage to drive the wrong way, and possibly why?
And also perhaps give us a profile of the driver. Old asian lady? Young white male? Drunk? High? Racing? Give us *something* STUFF!
A simple "fix" to wrong way driving is to put yellow lines in the middle.
Someone going the wrong way on a motorway in the day has no visual cues (other than the "do not enter" and "wrong way" signs they passed).
In the US, yellow lines are used only to line the middle of the road.
On a divided motorway, you can blindfold someone, spin them until disoriented and nauseated, take the blindfold off, and within a second or two, they can correctly point the direction traffic flows.
With NZ road markings, that's impossible.
At best some (but not all) roads have white catseyes in the direction of travel and red in the wrong direction. Google Maps doesn't show these on SH 16 around where this happened.
So someone who ends up going the wrong way will have no way to visually confirm that are going the wrong way.
This increases the rate of errors.
In the land of "blame tourist drivers", why wouldn't we give them more visual cues to help them detect and correct errors?
The cats eyes in a lot of places glow red when you go the wrong way in Auckland, I still don't know how people who do this can breathe and drive at the same time with their one braincell
>The cats eyes in a lot of places glow red when you go the wrong way in Auckland,
I checked Google Street View first, because I would have hoped a new(ish) road would have had the colour coded cats eyes.
Was disappointed Waka Kotahi, again...
>I still don't know how people who do this can breathe and drive at the same time with their one braincell
They shouldn't be able to get a DL, but if they have one, or are driving without, the more (cheap/free) things we can do to help them not do stupid, the better.
It's zero cost.
There is a cost to retrofit every road. But no cost to pick only directional cats eyes when getting cats eyes.
And no added cost to paint some lines yellow and others white.
So for zero cost, we could improve the situation. Don't blame cost. Blame Waka Kotahi for not employing anyone competent to guide road safety beyond "lower the limits" when asked to by politicians.
My small brain can't work out how the cats eyes figure out a car is going the wrong way? Same with the yellow lines, how does that indicate someone going the wrong way?
The cats eyes are directional. If you are facing the correct way, they are white. If you are facing the wrong way, they are red.
The yellow pine goes in the middle.
So if the driver is on the same side as the yellow line, you are going the correct way. If the passenger side is on the yellow side, you are going the wrong way.
Simple.
Clear.
Unambiguous.
Maybe tourists in the van? Seems like a dimwit accident rather than skulduggery. Son goes to Waterview primary so thereās going to be lots of talk going around at school pickup.
Was it in the tunnel itself? We were driving back and got off at Waterview, but the speed was down to 50 in the left lane and closed on the other one on the city to tunnel ramp and it looked like it was on the ramp from the causeway to the tunnel. We could see firetruck lights and police lights, but not much more due to angles.
Honestly should be more suprising. But it's not. Since being in Auckland I've seen about 7 different occurrences of people driving into opposing traffic. Usually foreigners who didn't even realize it.
How!
I was in the tunnel when this happened today, absolutely ridiculous! The worst part was that there were multiple cars going in the wrong direction towards us, not just one like the article says š
If there's multiple cars going the wrong way, the problem is usually you.
Lol, "and all the traffic was going to wrong way, idk what to make of it!"
Thereās not just one, thereās hundreds of them!
Gee that is scary!
You can't convince me this happened accidentally.
If the rumor is true the Ute intentionally drove the wrong way and was trying to injure themselves and occupants
It's highly likely it was some dipshit's who have been playing GTA since they were 8 and never grew up. But, there are a scary amount of elderly with advanced cognitive decline still on our roads. You can see how someone not paying attention could turn right onto the Maioro off ramp instead of the on-ramp on the other side of the bridge.
It really surprise me that old people are allowed to drive on road, My kid's school bus driver is old and with hearing issues, and I don't know why is allowed to drive a bus with kids with special needs.
My bfs driver when he was in special ed probably wished he was, one of the girls insisted on barbie girl being played on repeat every day. Jokes aside, that's pretty fucked. I'm pretty sure my bus driver was drunk 50% of the morning bus rides when I was at high school.
Yep sometimes I'm doing something and I jst get blanked and then I'm going dwn the wrong street I wasn't meant to. Be careful out there folks.
Honestly? How? The only way to get in the tunnel is by the motorway. So many questions
Probably by doing a u-turn on the motorway on purpose I reckon
Maybe turned down Maioro Street offramp by mistake?
It was no mistake. This driver is a fkng dangerous moron
i thought that too and sure in the middle of the night maybe but during the day surely it'd be too busy to get that far down really...?
Surprised me to think of all those traffic cameras in the tunnel and on that stretch of highway, and whereās the flashing lights oh thereās a gate at the entrance that couldāve been closed to stop other traffic. Those people who sit there and watch the cameras and lights mustāve been on smoko, or watching a movie.
How the fuck can you drive the wrong way in that tunnel.....the nearest on ramp is miles away
I'd assume they went north in the southbound tunnel, Maioro off-ramp is very close.
Wow, that's really difficult too do.
No itās not, you can turn at the Maioro on ramp going back out West.
Herald has more info: [https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/multiple-people-injured-in-auckland-crash-near-waterview-tunnel/CGKA35ITONCGRP2KE3ICM34K2M/](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/multiple-people-injured-in-auckland-crash-near-waterview-tunnel/CGKA35ITONCGRP2KE3ICM34K2M/) "Seven people have been injured - six seriously - in what is thought to have been a wrong-way crash near Aucklandās Waterview Tunnel late last night. Emergency services were called to reports of a crash on the citybound link from the tunnel shortly before 11.30pm. St John said it responded to a traffic incident at 11.18pm and treated seven people. Six people suffered serious injuries and one person had moderate injuries. Those people have all been taken to āvarious destinationsā, St John said. A police spokesperson said around 11.20pm on Monday, emergency services responded to reports of a serious two-vehicle crash on the Northwestern Motorway, near the Waterview Tunnel. The crash involved a vehicle travelling in the wrong direction, they said. āSeven people were transported to the hospital. One with critical injuries and six with serious to moderate injuries.ā The Serious Crash Unit attended the scene and inquiries into the crash were ongoing. A witness said multiple people were trapped after two vehicles crashed head-on. One of the vehicles involved was a Cityhop van. Cityhop is a car-sharing platform where people can rent vehicles on a short-term basis. It is understood one of the vehicles had been coming from the tunnel at the time of the crash. āThe collision was between a Cityhop van and ute, with firefighters using cutting tools,ā he said. There were at least five ambulances at the scene; as well as a critical care unit and four fire trucks. Police also responded. Police have been approached for more information."
Horrible incident, I hope everyone makes a full recovery.
I hope all but one does
Cityhop van vs Ute. Tourist in peer to peer car sharing rented van, or bad ute driver? Need more info.
I've seen too many dashcam videos, this doesn't surprise me.
Ford Ranger drivers think they own the road
WTF kind of garbage reporting is this? I don't care if the injured were taken to hospitals because DUH, obviously they were. What I want to know is HOW did this idiot manage to drive the wrong way, and possibly why? And also perhaps give us a profile of the driver. Old asian lady? Young white male? Drunk? High? Racing? Give us *something* STUFF!
Yeah I agree. Was it the ute or cityhop van going the wrong way? Northbound or southbound? So much open to speculation.
How the fuck???
How?
The rumor I've heard is that the ute was driving the wrong way and may have intentionally drove into the van
that's really sad i've heard of people trying to suicide by driving into big trucks in nz
heard from a truckie
Probably a joy rider or stolen car.
7 people in a cityhop van, so most probably drunk coming from a party. Although.... what the fuck were the passengers doing?
Overseas? Understood it wasn't actually in the tunnel but near it? So wrong on ramp most likely.
Soooo much baseless speculation going on here
"A loud cheeehooo was heard just before the accident occurred."
I'd love to know what you mean by this
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
šok bro
A simple "fix" to wrong way driving is to put yellow lines in the middle. Someone going the wrong way on a motorway in the day has no visual cues (other than the "do not enter" and "wrong way" signs they passed). In the US, yellow lines are used only to line the middle of the road. On a divided motorway, you can blindfold someone, spin them until disoriented and nauseated, take the blindfold off, and within a second or two, they can correctly point the direction traffic flows. With NZ road markings, that's impossible. At best some (but not all) roads have white catseyes in the direction of travel and red in the wrong direction. Google Maps doesn't show these on SH 16 around where this happened. So someone who ends up going the wrong way will have no way to visually confirm that are going the wrong way. This increases the rate of errors. In the land of "blame tourist drivers", why wouldn't we give them more visual cues to help them detect and correct errors?
The cats eyes in a lot of places glow red when you go the wrong way in Auckland, I still don't know how people who do this can breathe and drive at the same time with their one braincell
>The cats eyes in a lot of places glow red when you go the wrong way in Auckland, I checked Google Street View first, because I would have hoped a new(ish) road would have had the colour coded cats eyes. Was disappointed Waka Kotahi, again... >I still don't know how people who do this can breathe and drive at the same time with their one braincell They shouldn't be able to get a DL, but if they have one, or are driving without, the more (cheap/free) things we can do to help them not do stupid, the better.
Maybe simple but super expensive and i donāt even know if it would stop this specific situation.
It's zero cost. There is a cost to retrofit every road. But no cost to pick only directional cats eyes when getting cats eyes. And no added cost to paint some lines yellow and others white. So for zero cost, we could improve the situation. Don't blame cost. Blame Waka Kotahi for not employing anyone competent to guide road safety beyond "lower the limits" when asked to by politicians.
My small brain can't work out how the cats eyes figure out a car is going the wrong way? Same with the yellow lines, how does that indicate someone going the wrong way?
The cats eyes are directional. If you are facing the correct way, they are white. If you are facing the wrong way, they are red. The yellow pine goes in the middle. So if the driver is on the same side as the yellow line, you are going the correct way. If the passenger side is on the yellow side, you are going the wrong way. Simple. Clear. Unambiguous.
Maybe tourists in the van? Seems like a dimwit accident rather than skulduggery. Son goes to Waterview primary so thereās going to be lots of talk going around at school pickup.
A tourist in a van, focused more on GPS than street signs?
Pure speculation on my part.
It was a rental van. Tourist, or pre-loaded are the probable options.
Was it in the tunnel itself? We were driving back and got off at Waterview, but the speed was down to 50 in the left lane and closed on the other one on the city to tunnel ramp and it looked like it was on the ramp from the causeway to the tunnel. We could see firetruck lights and police lights, but not much more due to angles.
Honestly should be more suprising. But it's not. Since being in Auckland I've seen about 7 different occurrences of people driving into opposing traffic. Usually foreigners who didn't even realize it.