Luke Kirkness: Our road toll is unacceptable and a more proactive approach needs to be taken

There were 320 road fatalities in New Zealand last year. Photo / NZME

OPINION:

New Zealanders are a proactive bunch.

Throughout our history, there have been trailblazers who love to seek action, solve problems and do whatever it takes to prevent them from happening.

However, we seem to consistently miss the mark when it comes to road safety.

There were 320 road fatalities in New Zealand last year, 35 of which took place in the Bay of Plenty — the third-highest region behind Waikato (51) and Auckland (59).

In the Western Bay of Plenty and Rotorua areas, police caught more than 1600 drink- drivers, over 700 people using their mobile phones and more than 23,000 people speeding last year, as was reported last week.

And these are not issues restricted to only our part of the world, with nationwide campaigns running since Adam was a boy about the dangers of getting behind the wheel and breaking the law.

Our police certainly don't take that approach, working hard to ensure rule-breakers are caught and punished.

National road policing manager Superintendent Steve Greally said infringement notices were one of many tools police used to help keep roads safe.

"Supported resolutions and compliance enable our officers to choose what they believe will be the most effective tool to prevent the driver or rider from repeating the risky behaviour again in the future," he said.

"If we understand the cause of the offending, we are more likely to be able to prevent it from happening in the future."

I think there is still a lot to learn about why people ignore the obvious dangers that stare them in the face whenever they break the law on the roads. Few drivers could claim to get it right every time and never push the limits.

It would seem some adopt the "she'll be right" attitude that Kiwis are also well known for, but it's simply not worth it. We need to start thinking about fixing the problem more proactively.

One solution is imposing harsher penalties on rule-breakers, as was suggested by Brake New Zealand director Caroline Perry. Maybe people should have their keys taken off them if they're caught breaking the law in the first instance.

Another solution would be installing alcohol interlock systems on every car in the country and I'm sure there's some sort of technology around - or that could be developed - that would restrict phone use while in a vehicle.

No doubt looking into any possible solutions and putting them in place to reduce our death toll would be an expensive affair, but what's the price of your life or those of your loved ones?