Ninety-year-old Colin Stonex is in shock after having a nasty fall caused by loose gravel chips on the newly sealed Kilkenny Drive in Dannemora.
His neighbour Tweety Tang spotted him sitting on the footpath with blood trickling down his face, hands and knees.
Ms Tang and the lawn mowing man working on Mr Stonex’s section at the time called for an ambulance and rushed him to hospital.
Ms Tang, who lives on Kilkenny Drive, says this was an accident waiting to happen.
“I was afraid that someone would be badly hurt ever since Auckland Transport did a bad job of resurfacing a long patch of Kilkenny Drive in the month of March,” she says.
“It was done on a stretch that was smooth and didn’t need it at all. They have put chip seal over the old asphalt without sealing the chips properly.”
When Ms Tang called Auckland Council on April 10 to complain about the “half-done job”, she was upset to hear that the road inspectors had passed it saying it’s complete.
“That’s not on!” she says.
“Our patch of the road from 110-211 Kilkenny Drive looks terrible.
“There are old people moving on mobility scooters, children on their push bikes, motorists who have had cracked windscreens and chipped paint caused by flying chips and pedestrians being injured.”
Outraged, Ms Tang put a note in letterboxes asking if residents down the road were happy with the resealing and if something should be done about it.
Another resident, Di Silke, suggested that they circulate a petition which has secured around 250 signatures. It will be presented to the council.
“There is a significant increase of traffic noise and loose stones causing safety hazards for cyclists and children going to Point View School,” Mrs Silke said.
“We want Auckland Transport to pour hot mix to smoothen out the road.”
“Colin is a very able bodied 90-year-old and it was a shame to see him badly injured. We don’t want more accidents like these to happen again.”
When contacted Auckland Transport spokesman Mark Hannan said: “This section of Kilkenny Drive has been resealed in accordance with the Auckland Transport road resurfacing guidelines and we are satisfied with the performance of the new chip seal surface.
“The existing asphaltic concrete surface was completed in 1997 and was in need of resurfacing to keep the sealed surface waterproof and maintain good skid resistance.”
Mr Hannan said that resurfacing roads with chip seal is common practice throughout New Zealand and is endorsed by the NZ Transport Agency.
“The Auckland Transport road resurfacing guidelines require that low vehicle volume residential roads that were previously paved with asphaltic concrete at the time of development are resurfaced with chip seal.
“Some extra noise and loose chip is to be expected from a new chip seal surface and this usually diminishes over time. The new surface has been swept frequently by the contractor until bedding down.”
- Since initially publishing this story online, Mr Hannan contacted the Times and said: “Auckland Transport had no idea about the extent of Mr Stonex’s injuries from his accident. As a result we provided technical information about the work on Kilkenny Drive. We have now asked the Times for Mr Stonex’s details so we can offer any assistance we can in his recovery.”
