Solar powered lights used to mark the edge of the pathway from the Matapihi rail bridge to the mainland are being vandalised, only weeks after being installed.
The lights were installed as a safety measure after the fatality there last November. Matapihi resident Colin Williams, 48, was cycling at night when it is believed he fell, striking his head on rocks below the pathway.

Bruce holds one of the damaged solar path markers.

Of about 28 lights installed six weeks ago, eight have been destroyed or have disappeared and others are showing damage from people hitting them with rocks.
Tauranga City Council cycling administrator for community transport, Bruce Galloway, says the irony is the lights are probably being destroyed by the dead man's relatives.
'I'm very disappointed in the person or people who damaged them, considering they were put there for them,” says Bruce.
The damaged lights will eventually be replaced, but Bruce says he is not in a hurry.
'I saw them (the lights) at a cycling conference in Nelson in November and I thought ‘that's a darn good idea'.”
The Matapihi bridge is a key link in the Route A cycle path from Papamoa to Bethlehem. About 300 cyclists cross the bridge and use the pathway each day, an increase of 28 per cent over the last two years, says Bruce.
He has pedalled the pathway at night himself and says the line of lights marking the path's outer edge are a big help.