And increasingly they do it knowing that one crash can bring the entire system to a halt. A crash on Auckland's Northern Motorway, State Highway 1 delays motorists and comes at a substantial cost to the country. Photo / NZTABeginning in the late 1990s and early 2000s, police developed specialist Serious Crash Units trained in forensic crash reconstruction. It would be a nightmare to be wrongly convicted of a serious driving charge when in fact it was the other bugger. Because every time thousands of people sit trapped on a motorway behind a minor crash, it exposes a deeper problem.

Source: New Zealand Herald March 22, 2026 15:30 UTC