New Zealand / Otago

Cultivating safety: praise for gardening cop

12:17 pm on 10 January 2020

A policeman praised for pruning a roadside bush in Otago to help improve driver visibility hopes his gardening skills make the road safer.

Senior Sergeant Glenn Wilkinson puts his loppers to good use on some broom encroaching on a busy road in Central Otago. Photo: Reddit

A photo captioned 'Top cop contender 2020' was posted to the popular online site Reddit yesterday of the policeman cutting a bush which was obscuring the view for drivers at an intersection on the Crown Range Road between Queenstown and Wanaka.

Senior Sergeant Glenn Wilkinson said: "The foliage there had grown up enough that it was cutting the visibility... I came back the next day with a pair of loppers from home... I did ask the property owner beforehand and then I just jumped the fence and cleared some of that broom out of the way."

Some are calling him a "bloody legend" online, for taking the initiative to improve the safety and visibility at the near-miss intersection.

He was "a little gobsmacked by the attention" and just wanted to make the winding road safer.

"We want to reduce deaths and serious injuries on the road and something simple like that - it may just give someone some extra time to get across the road safely and saves us having to come back," he said.