Her father, Takapau dairy farmer Matthew John Dasent, 58, died in a two-vehicle head-on crash on State Highway 2 at Takapau on April 29.<\/p>\n
Mathew Dasent died after a two-vehicle crash on State Highway 2, near Takapau in April. His daughter Jane Dasent is backing the police campaign “Get Thru on 2”, launched on Tuesday. <\/p>\n
She said her life had not been the same since. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad\u2019s car crash has altered our lives entirely.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s now made me scared of everything on the road…as crazy as it sounds, I\u2019ve been in other people\u2019s cars while they are driving and I\u2019ve asked them specifically to slow down, because I\u2019m not ready to see my dad yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cStuff like this, when it happens, it\u2019s not just \u2018oh no somebody else has died on the roads\u2019; it creates such a huge ripple effect for so many people.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are now stuck dealing with learning how to be without him.\u201d <\/p>\n
She said the campaign was important to remind drivers to slow down and make smart decisions behind the wheel. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no need to rush; if you are tired, pull over and sleep, and it\u2019s so much better making it to your destination five minutes late than not making it at all. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat split-second decision is what caused us to lose our dad, and has caused so many people to lose their loved ones.\u201d<\/p>\n
Central Hawke\u2019s Bay officer in charge Sergeant Neil Baker said fatal crashes have a ripple effect through the community. <\/p>\n
Baker said that from Tuesday, police would have an increased visible presence and focus on driver restraints, impairments, distractions and speed.<\/p>\n
He said this included checkpoints, breath testing, drug testing, and \u201cspotters\u201d looking for phone and seatbelt use.<\/p>\n
He said officers would also monitor Te Hauke through to Waipawa and Waipukurau townships, rural communities, and State Highway 50, which connected with SH2 near Takapau.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though our main focus is SH2, people are dying on our rural roads as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police would also undertake prevention and community engagement activities across Central Hawke\u2019s Bay.<\/p>\n
The activities will be targeted at behaviours contributing to fatal crashes.<\/p>\n
These include excessive or inappropriate speed, alcohol or drug impairment, failure to wear restraints, driver fatigue, and poor decision-making and risk-taking behaviour.<\/p>\n
He said he and his officers wanted to prevent further road trauma. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are noticing that our roads are getting busier; there are more and more people commuting between Palmerston North and Hawke\u2019s Bay … driving to the conditions could not be more important.\u201d <\/p>\n
Eastern District road policing manager Angela Hallett said education was an important part of the locally driven campaign for safer roads.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we are dealing with here is driver behaviour, and wanting to influence good decisions from drivers. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea is to be seen, be visible and through that there is prevention; people see us on the road, they do slow down.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t be there all the time; we can\u2019t be in the car with people while they are driving; they have got to learn to make good decisions when there aren\u2019t police around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Will Foley said the community needed to take the road safety message seriously.<\/p>\n
\u201cTen fatal crashes … in just 18 months is a devastating number, and the fact that eight of those who lost their lives were local Central Hawke\u2019s Bay drivers makes this especially close to home.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery one of these deaths has a profound impact on families, friends and our wider community.\u201d <\/p>\n
Foley said the council was proud to support police and local road safety partners in raising awareness. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhether you\u2019re a local heading to work or school, or simply travelling through our district, please slow down, stay focused and make safe decisions.\u201d <\/p>\n
Michaela Gower joined Hawke\u2019s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke\u2019s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Her father, Takapau dairy farmer Matthew John Dasent, 58, died in a two-vehicle head-on crash on State Highway…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[45859,1561,1738,1853,12639,29422,7557,11784,1333,305,1976,42,26755,3331,3120,3234,43,90,675,12064,6302,13672,210,288578,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-586279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-45859","tag-bay","tag-campaign","tag-central","tag-crackdown","tag-crashes","tag-district","tag-fatal","tag-get","tag-have","tag-hawkes","tag-headlines","tag-highway","tag-launch","tag-main","tag-months","tag-news","tag-on","tag-police","tag-prompted","tag-safety","tag-state","tag-through","tag-thru","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586279","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=586279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}