The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) has started work on State Highway 33 from the Te Ngae Junction to Paengaroa to prevent crashes.

As part of this project, the transport agency will widen the road shoulders near Paengaroa to help drivers recover in case they turn away from the road.

The agency will also mark a wide centreline to reduce head-on crashes and install flexible roadside safety barriers to stop vehicles from running off the road.

NZTA Safety and Environment director Harry Wilson said that the latest work is the first stage of a larger project, which is aimed at preventing simple mistakes resulting in people being killed or seriously injured.

“16 people have died and 46 have been seriously injured on this stretch of road between Te Ngae junction and Paengaroa from 2006 and 2015.”

Wilson said: “16 people have died and 46 have been seriously injured on this stretch of road between Te Ngae junction and Paengaroa from 2006 and 2015. Most of these crashes were head-on or involved drivers running off the road and hitting trees, poles or deep ditches.

“The route is 34km long with some tricky terrain so that’s why it will be finished in three stages. The first stage is the easiest to complete and we hope to start on stage two next year and stage three in 2019.”

Work has started on the first stage and is expected to be completed by early next year.

The safety improvements project is part of the government’s NZ$600m ($416m) Safe Roads programme, which focuses on preventing deaths and serious injuries on high-risk rural state highways over the next decade.