More bilingual signage in Tairawhiti

Tairawhiti Roads is continuing with its roll out of bilingual road safety messages and roadwork signage around the district.

The latest billboards on our state highways are in partnership with Eastland Wood Council, promoting road safety messages relating to the trucking industry.

Those messages are:

- 10 below – encouraging truck drivers to drive 10km below the speed limit

- Fatigue stops – the importance of taking a break if you are feeling tired.

- Share the Roads – a programme delivered in school which aims to educate children about trucks, blind spots, the air turbulence that trucks can create and how to be safe when sharing the roads with trucks.

- General road safety – avoiding speeding and distractions.

Council’s road safety educator Dianne Akurangi says reducing speed is the primary target.

“Speed affects all crashes. It can be a factor in causing them and it has a direct effect on the damage done in a crash. It is clear from the crash statistics that many people underestimate how changing conditions, such as wet weather, can increase road risk.”

Bilingual messages have been used on Tairawhiti road safety billboards previously in collaboration with Maori Language Week.

Earlier this year Tairawhiti Roads launched bilingual stop-slow signs for traffic management and have now added further bilingual road works signage.

Tairawhiti Roads general manager Dave Hadfield said the feedback on the signs had been positive and the contractors were proud to use them.

The signs are being used on council roads and state highways by Downer’s teams.

Our region’s population is 49 percent Maori, making te reo Maori a key way of communicating in our community.

Council’s Te Reo Maori me ona Tikanga Policy was adopted in August 2014, allowing us to work with our stakeholders towards a bilingual district. Gisborne District Council was the first council to formally adopt a bilingual policy.

The policy includes bilingual signage on all new council signs and buildings.

ENDS

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