A coroner has found the New Zealand Transport Agency knew a lane of State Highway 1 south of Timaru was in poor, slippery condition before a truck slid across the road on it and killed a 31-year-old woman, and did not do enough to fix it.
Kellyanne Pattinson died on 17 January 2018 when a northbound Bidfood delivery truck lost traction on a bend near Pareora, crossed both northbound lanes and the centreline, and hit her southbound hatchback. Coroner Alexandra Cunninghame’s findings into her death were released on Monday 28 September 2026, more than eight years after the crash, RNZ reported.
The coroner found no evidence that driver fault played a part. Instead she pointed to the road itself. The northbound left lane where the truck lost grip had a “flushed” surface, meaning tar had risen to the top of the seal and left it slippery when wet.
“It showed signs of ‘excessive tar bleed’, meaning tar had risen to the top of the road and created a ‘flushed’ road surface. A flushed road surface results in slippery patches when the road is wet, and sticky patches when it is hot,” Cunninghame said in her findings, as quoted by RNZ.
According to 1News, the truck driver had around 30 years of driving experience and had driven that section of highway twice a day for more than a decade. He was travelling at about 85km/h as he rounded the bend. The truck then travelled 68 metres sideways across three lanes, and Pattinson had no time to brake or swerve. Police investigated and decided not to charge the driver.
“Coming up round the hill I felt the back of the truck go and next minute I’m heading across the road,” the driver told investigators, 1News reported.
An eyewitness described the road as wet and greasy at the time. Two other truck drivers, including a driver trainer, gave evidence that they had felt the backs of their own trucks slide out on the same corner in wet weather in the days before the crash.
The warning signs went back years. NZTA data showed five crashes within 250 metres of the site between 2012 and 2017, all of them described as loss-of-control crashes and four of them involving northbound vehicles. A four-kilometre stretch of the highway either side of Pareora was already under review by the agency at the time, after locals raised concerns about a nearby intersection.
The road was resealed in early November 2017. Later that month chip loss and surface bleeding were found in the southbound lane, and a contractor fixed that in December by applying dry chip. The coroner said the contractor also noted a loss of texture in the northbound left lane at that point, and in the month before the crash a contractor told NZTA the lane was deteriorating.
“I am satisfied that NZTA was aware of the poor condition of the northbound left lane at the time of the crash,” Cunninghame said.
Beyond a “slippery when wet” sign for northbound traffic roughly half a kilometre before the corner, the agency took no further action on that lane before Pattinson died.
“Given the documented concerns about the road, I am not satisfied that NZTA’s earlier steps were adequate to ensure public safety,” the coroner said.
Things moved quickly after the death. The northbound left lane at the crash site was resealed three days later as a temporary fix. Rumble strips were later added to the centreline and edge lines, along with more signs, further resealing and skid resistance testing.
The bigger fix never arrived. In 2021 the agency planned the State Highway 1 Timaru to St Andrews safety improvements project, which would have put continuous median barriers along the corridor and was due to be finished by February 2026. It did not go ahead to construction. NZTA told the court this was to “align with government priorities”, 1News reported.
1News also reported that the barriers were dropped in 2024 after residents and business owners raised concerns. Local MPs Miles Anderson and James Meager had written to the then transport minister, Simeon Brown, arguing that barriers would make it harder for farm machinery, milk tankers and stock trucks to get in and out of properties. The minister said at the time that lower-cost measures such as wider centre lines, road widening and surfacing work would go ahead instead.
The coroner has now recommended that NZTA carry out the project, including the median barriers.
“Had the project proceeded, I would have been satisfied that adequate steps had been taken by NZTA to ensure public safety and to reduce the chance of further deaths occurring at the crash site,” she said.
“While I accept that funding priorities may be a matter outside of NZTA’s direct control, I make the above recommendation as a way of ensuring continued focus on the need to improve safety on a stretch of road which has claimed a life.”
The coroner found no evidence that Bidfood’s driver training, or any failure to follow it, contributed to the death, and noted the company had kept improving its training since.
In a statement, NZTA said it acknowledged the findings and recommendation but could not promise the upgrade would happen soon.
“The State Highway 1 Timaru to St Andrews safety improvements project, which the coroner recommends that NZTA implements, is a major project in size and scope, and we have so far been unable to advance it due to funding availability,” a spokesperson said. “The progression of the project in future will be subject to government prioritisation and funding availability.”
The agency pointed to the steps it had taken before the crash, including the resealing plans, work on chip loss and surface bleeding, and the warning sign. “We do acknowledge, however, the coroner’s view that more could have been done prior to this crash,” it said.
RNZ approached Transport Minister Chris Bishop’s office, which said specific projects such as the Timaru to St Andrews upgrade were an operational decision for NZTA and its board, funded through the National Land Transport Fund.
That leaves the recommendation sitting between the agency, which says it lacks the money, and the minister’s office, which says it is the agency’s call. Coroners’ recommendations are not binding, and this one lands in the middle of the general election campaign, with transport spending once again up for debate.
Pattinson, a cook and caregiver, was remembered by her mother Helen as social, bubbly, happy and outgoing. Her parents, Russell and Helen Pattinson, had hoped the inquest would give clearer answers about what caused the crash.
“I am acutely conscious that nothing this Court can do can alleviate the pain of losing their beloved daughter,” the coroner said, according to 1News.
Do you drive State Highway 1 between Timaru and St Andrews, and should the median barriers go back on the table even if they make farm access harder? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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