Whakamarama's Emma Cross is more than 9000km from home but the horror of State Highway 2 still affects her.
When she reads of the latest crash on Facebook she wonders ‘Is it someone I know? Is it one of my family who has become the latest statistic?'
Emma, 20, is currently working in Hong Kong but had she been home she would have attended the Fix the Bloody Road Group's protest on the Wairoa Bridge over government inaction on road safety measures between Tauranga and Waihi.
Instead, she has written a letter to The Weekend Sun expressing her frustration.
'I just do not think it is acceptable for such a developing city as Tauranga to have a state highway with only two lanes, barely any safety measures, such a high speed limit and a reputation for being the most dangerous road in New Zealand, with the most accidents and fatalities.”
The posts Emma reads on the Fix the Bloody Road Facebook page from Hong Kong terrify her.
'Every time I get a notification from that group saying something along the lines of ‘heard sirens from the house', ‘huge queues backed up to Katikati', ‘three fire engines, two ambulances and a police car just went past – must be a big one', I get terrified. I take to Google searching for news articles, recent reports, and then when that provides nothing I go back to the Facebook page and scan the comments: ‘Heard it's fatal', ‘looks like a head-on collision', ‘they are diverting traffic down such and such road'. Nothing with the information I need. Is it someone I know? Is it one of my family who has become the latest statistic?”
For Emma, learning to drive as a 16-year-old frequently involved a right turn out of Barrett Road in Whakamarama across State Highway 2.
'It used to be, and still is, one of the most frightening things for me. Learning to drive I would always turn left, then right onto Plummer's Point, turn around in World of Horses and then back onto the state highway. To this day I often do this when I know it is peak hour.
'I do not think any stretch of road or turn should be this dangerous or scary to drive on for anyone, let alone 16-year-olds.
'A few seconds of hesitation, or pressure of a building line of cars behind, should not be the difference between life and death.”
Emma admits there is always going to be a certain amount of driver error involved in the SH2 crashes 'but you can certainly reduce the chances of it happening by improving the road and its safety measures”.
Emma says there should be no need for the community to fight so hard to get road safety improvements. 'There are plain-as-day statistics and plenty of grieving families and friends showing the consequences of what has been done so far – nothing.”
In contrast, Emma compares the effort of the Hong Kong government in the wake of typhoon Mangkhut earlier this month.
'If the Hong Kong government can offer enough support, protection and assistance to get 7.3 million people through the most intense storm since records began with no deaths, surely the New Zealand government can fix a bloody road and prevent the two dozen deaths and copious amount of grieving families and friends we have had to deal with over the past few years.
'I obviously could not participate in the protest, but I hope this letter can make up for my absence and perhaps open the eyes of anyone who has any power in the decisions regarding this road.”