Western Bay of Plenty police are praising the early construction start time of the Tauranga Eastern Link, saying it will reduce the number of road crashes along the notorious stretch of State Highway 2. Transport Minister Steven Joyce announced in Tauranga on Thursday that tolling would be implemented on the 23km highway, which runs from Te Maunga to Paengaroa. The KiwiRAP rating system ranked the existing stretch of SH2 between Te Maunga and Paengaroa - the second most dangerous in New More...

Bay of Plenty MP Tony Ryall says using a toll to fast track the Tauranga Eastern Link project is in the best interests of the region's economy. Transport Minister Steven Joyce announced in Tauranga on Thursday that a toll of $2 for cars and $5 for trucks will be implemented to bring the construction of the Te Puke bypass forward seven years. Bay of Plenty MP Tony Ryall is in full support of tolling the Tauranga Eastern Link project. This means construction on the $455 million Tauranga More...

Environment BOP is in support of the government's decision to toll the Tauranga Eastern link project that will enable traffic to bypass Te Puke when travelling between Te Maunga and Paengaroa. The toll is to be $2 for cars and $5 for trucks and having it enables construction on the five year project to begin in 2011 instead of 2018 with no toll. "It shows that the government is committed to the need to put infrastructure in place that will cater for the future economic and population More...

Sun strike is believed to be a factor in an early Friday morning crash on Cambridge Road. A woman driving towards the city crashed into the rear of a landscaper's truck parked on the side of the road near the Sterling Gate roundabout shortly before 8am. She was taken to hospital for observation and treatment of what police at the scene say are minor More...

Construction on the four lane Tauranga Eastern Link is expected to begin in early 2011. The early start was announced in Tauranga on Thursday morning by Transport Minister Steven Joyce, who confirmed the government has approved tolling to help pay for the $455 million highway. An aerial diagram of the new highway. The highway will run from Te Maunga to Paengaroa at the junction of State Highway 2 and 33. It will include 17km of new road and 6km of existing highway. Tolls will apply to the More...

Ten days, three major road smashes, two dead and 21 others injured - figures that have police increasingly concerned as all these incidents involve Bay of Plenty youth. The latest crash caused the death of 18 year old, Judas Ace Witeri, after the car he was travelling in smashed off a bridge in Te Puke on Sunday morning. The place where a car broke through a bridge barrier in Te Puke on Sunday, as it plummeted 6m into a streambed leaving one of its seven occupants dead. Eighteen year More...

The New Zealand Transport Agency has created new road safety billboards for State Highway 2 based on the findings of a survey of crash statistics on Western Bay of Plenty roads. The Communities at Risk register holds information about each of the crashes on roads in the region. It shows 17 per cent of all fatal and serious injury crashes in the region were caused by 15-19 year olds. It also shows a truck was involved in 15 per cent of all fatal and serious crashes in the Western Bay of More...

Western Bay of Plenty police are questioning statistics that reveal trucks were involved in 15 per cent of all fatal and serious crashes in the region. The statistics were collected between 2005 and 2009 and published in New Zealand Transport Agency's 'Communities At Risk Register'. The 15 per cent figure was above the national average of 10.7 per cent. According to NZTA the region is ranked the 11th worst, out of 72 areas, for fatal and serious crashes involving trucks. But Western More...

A car collided with a truck at the intersection of Chapel Street and Cameron Road in central Tauranga at about 11am on Friday. Senior sergeant Ian Campion says the woman driving the car was heading through the intersection towards Tauranga city. He says the truck was heading across the intersection from Marsh Street to Takitimu Drive. The car collided with the truck on its left side, spun 130 degrees and hit a traffic light pole. No-one was injured in the crash but it caused moderate More...

Bay of Plenty police say the current road toll in the region is the lowest in years. Between 1 January 2010 and 18 July 31 road fatalities were recorded in the Bay of Plenty police district. The region's road policing manager, Kevin Taylor, says the road toll for this period is the lowest in three years. He says the 31 fatalities are 31 too many. "Zero fatalities is an acceptable level. The speed limit is what it says on the signs. There's no about or somewhere close." Kevin More...