\u201cFor a few years, there\u2019s been a lot of near misses on that hill because it\u2019s a blind hill.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings could go wrong pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Locals saw tourists from across the country and overseas stopping for photos.<\/p>\n
Jordan said there had even been reports of people lying in the road.<\/p>\n
The area had been used for wedding photos over the years too, but that was well managed, Jordan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ll have spotters on both sides of the hill to stop traffic so the bride can beautify her dress and come out and have the beautiful photo,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t mind that so much because you know the risk is over the hill because you\u2019ve got someone stopping it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was different when there were 10 cars parked on the sides of the roads, with up to 15 people taking photos, Jordan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolice do get called every now and then, but within an hour, if it\u2019s a nice fine day, you\u2019ve got a different group of people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rise of electric cars had made things even worse, because of how quiet the vehicles are.<\/p>\n
Jordan said those stopping for photos \u201cwon\u2019t even hear you coming on the other side of the hill\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur car\u2019s not very loud, so I have to be particularly careful because they can\u2019t hear us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Yellow dotted lines have been put in place along the sides of the roads. <\/p>\n
Signs telling people not to stop had been installed as well.<\/p>\n
Those measures had not worked and more needed to be done, Jordan said.<\/p>\n
Caution was needed to ensure whatever they did did not just shift the problem elsewhere, she added.<\/p>\n
Kent Road in Taranaki. Photo \/ RNZ, Sally Round<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we probably need to publicise that there\u2019s actually a beautiful spot down at Lake Mangamahoe,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a lookout that you can walk up … it\u2019s not an arduous walk, just up on a hill.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou get the same beautiful photo of the mountain, but you\u2019ve also got the beautiful Lake Mangamahoe in that photo as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
In July, police warned members of the public not to put themselves at risk on the road for a photo.<\/p>\n
Senior Sergeant Matt Prendergast said motorists had reported almost hitting people who had stopped for photos.<\/p>\n
\u201cConcerningly, people are ignoring the signs and have been seen lying on the road and stopping traffic to take photos of the mountain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had more than one report of people nearly being hit, and multiple near misses being reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are not only endangering themselves, but all road users.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t always be there to enforce the law, so we are appealing to people to use their common sense and obey the signs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not worth risking your life to update your social media account.\u201d<\/p>\n
A petition calling for action over the problem has been presented to the New Plymouth District Council.<\/p>\n
The council has asked locals to present their case for safety improvements during consultations for the region\u2019s long-term plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cFor a few years, there\u2019s been a lot of near misses on that hill because it\u2019s a blind…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[806,2841,28164,23375,13233,111,43,139,69,90,12663,154770,1314,6302,8207,15412,1324,16715,9182],"class_list":["post-571215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-as","tag-country","tag-fears","tag-kent","tag-mount","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-photo","tag-reporters","tag-road","tag-safety","tag-sparks","tag-spot","tag-stop","tag-taranaki","tag-tourists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}