"Imagine you're driving on your five-hour journey with a full load of your whānau and your baby in the car and not ONE but TWO horses are running head on towards you with oncoming vehicles and one behind you at NIGHT. This is what happened to a couple and their baby travelling from Palmerston North to Auckland It's just lucky that these people weren't killed! So traumatic for all involved!
No one deserves to be put in a position like this nor do these horses. WAKE UP..."
Airon Reweti is the author of this powerful message on her local Facebook community noticeboard. She and her family had responded to the incident on August 26th, and her uncle gave the couple and their small child a bed for the night.
"This isn't the first time. My mother and I are the ones who would always get phone calls and be up random hours trying to get horses off the roads. This recent incident, I just helped the couple to have somewhere to stay and checked in with them to see how they were and their vehicle. I didn’t ask them to many questions as they were so frightened with their baby in the car too," says Airon.
Her appeal for horses to be contained properly has prompted an immediate response from the local and wider Tūrangi community. Suggestions were made around what could be done, who was responsible, accounts of other near misses and dead horses, and the sharing of the heartbreaking consequence of horse verse car collisions.
"This is a much wider problem than Tūrangi ", says Kendyl Budd. For Kendyl the issue of loose horses on the road is deeply personal, after her friend was killed six years ago in the Bay of Plenty.
“My friend would still be here if the horses that night were contained properly. I was the last to see her alive, her words “…see you tomorrow” after our shift will always remain in my memory.”
As Chair of the New Zealand Vulnerable Road User Charitable Trust, I was moved by the community's desire to prevent further harm to people's lives and also the welfare of the animals - all a preventable situation that surely can be addressed.
I sought clarification from Police National Headquarters on the issue of Police powers around wandering stock on the road and the consequence for an individual if they own an animal that is not contained, know it is not contained and then it is involved or causes a crash.
Inspector Peter McKinnie says, "Police’s role is to keep everyone safe, and if we are alerted to any incident of wandering stock, we will attend if needed to help ensure peoples’ safety.
However, jurisdiction in this area sits with either the owner of the stock and/or Council Animal Control, and Police will hand over to them once those people are on scene.
It is primarily the applicable Council’s responsibility to promote appropriate stock/pet containment, and to consider enforcement action for breaches.
As such, we would refer you to Councils for a better picture of the scale of any issue.
There is potential for a person or company responsible for wandering stock, to be prosecuted in the event of a serious crash outcome. Such situations are thankfully rare, and have complexities relating to the particular circumstances, which would be considered on a case-by-case basis."
That being the case, I called Taupō District Council Mayor John Funnell to understand the scale of the problem and what it is doing about it. The Trust's offer to support and help where possible was welcomed.
Mayor Funnell says, "It's a difficult issue and we, the council would appreciate the community's support to ensure all horses are properly contained."
"A horse lose on the road is a significant concern and time is of the essence if we want to stop an accident.”
Mayor Funnell is asking the public to report loose stock immediately to the Taupō District Council on 07 3760899 which is 24/7 or Police via 111. "The sooner council staff are aware of uncontained animals, the sooner we can act."
Mayor Funnell says council staff, with Police support will take action if there is a horse lose on the road. “They will try to herd any animal into a nearby paddock where they can. If that fails though, then the animal will be put down. This is not the most desirable outcome, but this is for the safety of people and it will stop accidents.”
Where to from here? The Trust has written to Mayor Funnell and suggested a collaborative approach be taken to determine a positive speedy outcome, similar to the approach taken in addressing horse rider and community safety in Cambridge with Waipā District Council.
Mayor Funnell expects this issue will be raised at this week’s co-governance meeting (Wednesday 2nd September), and says following the most recent incident, the “horse issue is getting more attention in Tūrangi . I have spoken to people, and they say horse incidents are happening too often. We appreciate the Trust's support to raise awareness and encourage responsible animal ownership within community."
Tūrangi Tongariro Councillor Sandra Greenslade is a presentative on the co-governance committee and agrees this is a good place for the issue to be raised. "I am concerned for local people and visitors driving the busy State Highways, and obviously for the welfare of the horses too. I would hate for anything to happen to someone and what’s happening in our district is not right – there should be no threat to people’s life or limb on our roads."
Trust chair Julia McLean carried out a quick search on the number of reports made to the local Tūrangi Facebook Noticeboard page on the topic of uncontained horses.
Help keep our roads safe. Secure your horses.
The Trust will keep across this issue and work with people willing to prevent, protect and educate to make our roads safe for all users.
Julia
