Te Anau Police, who’ve recently voiced concerns that there’s a tragedy waiting to happen on their patch as drivers speed in and out of Milford from Queenstown, say they attend crashes, mostly involving overseas tourists in rental vehicles, every day.

A Swiss tourist driving a rental campervan allegedly pulled out in front of a fully loaded truck and trailer unit carrying septic waste right above the Upukerora River on Wednesday, 18 February, which Sergeant Dave Leach says could’ve been “absolutely disastrous”.

Thankfully, nobody was injured but he says the situation would’ve been very different but for a half a metre that saw the front of the campervan, which was extensively damaged, taking most of the impact.

Two children were in the campervan.

“The truck driver, who was travelling downhill, held his line but if he’d swerved to avoid the campervan and tipped over then the full contents of his load could’ve potentially flowed in the Upukerora River,” Leach says.

The middle-aged Swiss driver had allegedly pulled straight out from a campground site and into the path of the truck, coming from Milford into Te Anau, and was issued with an infringement notice for allegedly failing to give way.

Driver fatigue and falling asleep at the wheel was also a problem with another overseas tourist rolling a car into a paddock near Mossburn after allegedly dozing off.

Speeding is an issue every day, along with drivers not driving to wet conditions, falling asleep at the wheel and drifting left off the road, Leach says.

Queenstown Police attended two separate accidents in two days earlier this week after drivers fell asleep at the wheel.

A 58-year-old Australian tourist was charged with three counts of careless driving causing injury after a rental vehicle with four Australian tourists travelling east on a normally busy stretch of State Highway 6 at Lake Hayes allegedly veered off the road and hit a tree just after 4.30pm on Sunday, 15 February.

Three people were injured, two seriously with one – a woman, airlifted to Dunedin Hospital by the Otago Southland Rescue Helicopter. That vehicle was extensively damaged.

Just over 48 hours later another driver crashed on Gibbston Highway after allegedly falling asleep at the wheel just after 6.20pm and colliding with an Aurora power transformer, Queenstown Constable Amanda Shute says.

The vehicle then allegedly continued on hitting a fence before coming to a stop rolled onto its left side, she says.

The driver had allegedly approached a long sweeping left turn and fallen asleep, she says. Enquiries are continuing.

Leach says a driver rolled a car recently in a 45km/hr speed advisory in wet conditions on the Milford side of the Homer Tunnel and another campervan rolled on a descent down that side.

Police also attended a four-car pile-up on the Te Anau-Milford Highway around 12.25pm on Saturday, 14 February, after it’s understood three vehicles driven by overseas visitors had stopped due to a mob of sheep moving along the road.

Leach says a fourth vehicle allegedly failed to stop short, rear-ending the third vehicle, which subsequently pushed each vehicle into the other in a nose-to-tail.

Leach says Police are also targeting roadworks sites after complete disregard lately, especially from overseas drivers, for the speed restriction advisories through these, which has also caused accidents this past week or so.

“We had two crashes in the weekend in the roadworks on the Athol to Five Rivers highway.”

In one a driver hit loose metal and braked, losing control while in the other a driver was understood to have landed a vehicle in a ditch.

“People need to observe the speed limits through roadworks. They’re not sticking to the speed restrictions,” he says.

Leach says this is also putting roadworks crews and other road users at risk, which will not be tolerated.

“We will be targeting these areas, and these people will be dealt with, so drivers will be ignoring these restrictions at their own peril,” he says.

Police also attended another accident today, 20 February, involving a Kiwi driver and an overseas driver at the Mavora Lakes turnoff on the Te Anau-Mossburn Road. Investigations are continuing.

It’s the busy Chinese New Year period at present with a lot of traffic on the roads and all drivers need to take extra care.

St John Ambulance responders treated two patients at the scene for minor injuries after two separate accidents on Saturday, 14 February – one on the Te Anau-Mossburn Highway just after 2pm and the other on the State Highway 6-Lowther Road just before 6pm.

They didn’t need to be transported for further treatment, a spokesperson says.

*Police urge motorists to continue to report unsafe driving to them immediately on 111.