Richard Moore: Cars scarier than spiders

Impatience is one of the main causes of car crashes on our roads. Photo / File

There are few things I like better than putting my cameras in my car and heading off on a drive around this country.

The roads are good, the scenery is good and there is a feeling of freedom a journey in my car gives.

I don't think about the dangers out there on the roads, nor do I have a feeling of dread when I get into my vehicle.

Which is surprising, because getting into a car is the last thing that several hundred people do each year in New Zealand.

Last year, 294 died in road crashes. How many people died from spider bites?

What? You ask. Where did that question come from?

Look at it this way.

How many of you cringe at the thought of a large spider stomping towards you? Heck, I know people who are scared of daddy longlegs.

And yet, spiders, in this country, are relatively harmless.

But it is a primal reaction built into humans over tens of thousands of years to beware of things that can hurt us. And so, spiders are scary to many people. So are snakes.

Cars, however, kill masses of us and yet are not scary. That's because they have not been around long enough to yet be imprinted into our DNA as being a danger.

But they will be in centuries to come and, while cars are not themselves to blame for the road toll, they facilitate mass deaths on our roads.

This year, our road toll is racing towards 300 at an almost unstoppable rate. And International Traffic Forum statistics show Kiwi drivers to be among the worst in the developed world, with few signs of a change in attitude.

I have been driving here for 11 years and, I have to say, I am still gobsmacked by the stupidity of some people behind the wheel:

-Driving too fast for skill levels.

-An idiot's determination to endanger themselves and others, so they can arrive somewhere a couple of minutes quicker.

-Or, it could be they just cannot sit behind another vehicle without feeling a need to overtake it.

The latest figures I could get hold of - for 2012 - show that there were 70 fatal crashes while a car was cornering , which can be put down to either speeding or a lack of skills, and 70 head-on crashes.

Those head-on smashes did not include collisions while overtaking.

A few weeks back, we were in the Far North and, while heading up there, came within a couple of seconds of being collected by a moron overtaking someone on a corner - a corner with double yellow lines.

There is not much you can do, only brake, steer for the side of the road, and pray.

Then hope the explosive burst of eye-watering invective hasn't deafened my good lady.

It wasn't the first time I've been in that situation and I'm sure it won't be the last. A week or so after that, I had to take a truck from Tauranga to Auckland to pick up a load of items and twice on the return journey was almost sideswiped by numbskulls who cut in too quickly after overtaking us and almost took the front off the truck.

I swear to God there would have only been half a metre in it both times and this is while we are travelling at 90km/h.

I don't know what can be done to show people that driving needs care and attention, and impatience will eventually lead to someone being hauled out of a mangled car.

I guess police just have to crack down even harder on drivers breaking the law and forget about issuing warnings, instead handing out large fines for:

-Failing to stop at a stop sign.

-Using a mobile phone while driving.

-Overtaking in a stupid fashion.

-Speeding.

-Generally being a dickhead.

And I have another suggestion that may improve things. How about Kiwis practise driving with a black bag over their heads?

Don't worry folks, there is method in my madness.

I reckon they should learn to drive with the bag to simulate the fact too many Kiwis drive with their heads up their ... (Ed's note: Stop there Richard, we get the general idea.)

-richard@richardmoore.com

Richard Moore is an award-winning Western Bay journalist and photographer.