Bridges applaudes drop in major crashes

Tauranga MP and Associate Transport Minister Simon Bridges has welcomed new risk-ratings showing significant improvements in the safety of New Zealand's roads.

Mr Bridges helped launch of the latest KiwiRAP Bay of Plenty road assessment results today.

KiwiRAP (New Zealand Road Assessment Programme) measures crash risk on nearly 11,000 kilometres of state highway, identifying high-risk roads to help target safety improvements.

"Improving the safety of roads and roadsides is a top priority in Safer Journeys," Mr Bridges said.

"One of the main actions we have in this area is a focus on improving safety on high risk rural roads.

"It is great to see that the latest KiwiRAP results show a drop of more than 15 per cent in fatal and serious injury crashes on state highways."

Mr Bridges said the Government's Roads of National Significance (RoNS) programme was also a major contributor to improving state highway safety.

Mr Bridges acknowledged the work the NZ Transport Agency, the Automobile Association, the Ministry of Transport, the police and the ACC in producing the risk maps.

"This collaboration is a great example of what can be achieved by working together. While continuing to improve road safety is on-going, KiwiRAP is already being put to great use to creating safer journeys for all New Zealanders."