Northgate

Northgate is the section of road between Hobson St and Devon St East. It is the gateway to New Plymouth from the north, hence its name. The name was adopted at the suggestion of Ian Raine, and was announced on opening day, 9 July 1983, by the Minister of Works and Development, Tony Friedlander.

Northgate was built to accommodate the increased weight of traffic when large objects were being transported by road as part of the "Think Big" projects that were initiated by the then National government of Robert Muldoon.

Northgate can be a dangerous stretch of road. Some car drivers behave badly. In August 1997, a reckless driver lost control on Northgate and crashed on Te Hēnui Bridge. Pedestrians skirted around the damaged section until it was repaired six weeks later.

A month later, a careless young driver caused injury by colliding head-on. It had been raining at the time and the road was greasy. The driver of the other vehicle was trapped for nearly an hour and suffered serious leg injuries.

A worse accident happened in August 1998. A drunk driver killed one of his passengers while travelling towards Bell Block. The Daily News report had this to say: "At the intersection of Northgate and Devon St East, the van mounted a traffic island and drove along it, travelled along a grass verge, hit a pōhutukawa tree, crossed a footpath, hit a lamp post, crashed into a fence, crossed a bank, hit a second pōhutukawa and came to rest against it."

So be patient and stay alert if you're using Northgate, because thousands of us do so every day.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.