50 Victoria Street
Private Bag 6995
Wellington 6141
New Zealand
T 64 4 894 5400
F 64 4 894 6100
www.nzta.govt.nz
27 March 2019
Tim Frank
[FYI request #9731 email]
REF: OIA-4784
Dear Tim,
Request made under the Official Information Act 1982
Thank you for your request through the FYI web site to the NZ Transport Agency on 1 March 2019
requesting the following information under the Official Act 1982 (the Act):
Could you please provide information how many incidents resulting in death or serious harm
occurred on SH 73 between Arthurs Pass and Otira since 1988.
Could you please provide an estimate how many vehicles traveled across this stretch of State
Highway during this time (preferably by year and vehicle type).
The data you requested has been provided to you in the attached spreadsheets:
•
OIA-4784 Crash data.xlsx
•
OIA-4784 Traffic Data(1).xlsx
The spreadsheet ‘OIA-4784 Crash data.xlsx’ contains the information you have requested for how
many incidents resulting in death or serious harm occurred on State Highway 73 between Arthurs Pass
and Otira since 1988.
It is important to note the following which is also provided to you in the attached crash data
spreadsheet for your convenience:
•
data is provided from the road traffic crash database; Crash Analysis System (CAS)
•
data is limited to fatal and serious injury crashes reported by the Police to the NZ Transport
Agency for the years 1988 to 2018 as recorded in CAS to date - 4/03/2019
•
data is limited to crashes on State Highway 73 between Mount Bealey Road, Arthurs Pass and
Settlement Road, Otira
•
traffic crash data covers all NZ roadways or places where the public have legal access with a
motor vehicle
•
due to the police reporting time frame and subsequent data processing there is a lag from the
time of a crash to full and correct crash records within CAS
•
due to the nature of non-fatal crashes it is believed that these are under-reported, with the
level of under-reporting decreasing with the severity of the crash.
The spreadsheet ‘OIA-4784 Traffic data.xlsx’ contains information on vehicles travelling in this area.
We have provided traffic counts by vehicle type at a measuring site at Arthurs Pass (the nearest site to
the specified section of highway) from 2001 to 2017 (the latest year currently available).
For 1996 to 2000 we have provided traffic counts for al vehicles. Counts by vehicle type are not
available from before 2001.
Prior to 1996, traffic volumes can be obtained from
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/state-
highway-traffic-volumes/. Note that in the traffic data spreadsheet, the following vehicle categories are used:
Vehicle classes
Vehicle class composition
Passenger cars (CAR)
Cars and station wagons, with a wheelbase of less than 3.2 metres
Light commercial vehicles
Vans, utilities and light trucks up to 3.5 tonnes gross laden weight. LCVs
(LCV)
mainly have single rear tyres but include some small trucks with dual
rear tyres
Medium commercial vehicle Two axle heavy trucks without a trailer, over 3.5 tonnes gross laden
(MCV)
weight
Heavy commercial vehicle I Rigid trucks with or without a trailer, or articulated vehicle with three or
(HCV I)
four axles in total
Heavy commercial vehicle I Trucks and trailers and articulated vehicles with or without trailers with
(HCV II)
five or more axles in total
If you would like to discuss this reply with the NZ Transport Agency, please contact Kerry Greig,
Manager, Data Services, by email to
[email address] or by phone on 04 894 5251.
Yours sincerely,
Galina Mitchelhill
Senior Manager, Research and Analytics