Over-confidence causing Bay crashes

Over-confident drivers cause accidents.

Drivers being too confident in their own abilities is still the cause of too many crashes in Hawke's Bay, says a police boss.

"People don't realise their body is travelling over 80 to 100 kilometres an hour and, when the vehicle suddenly stops, your organs bounce around inside your frail body - and that's where the really serious injuries take place," Eastern road policing manager Inspector Matt Broderick said.

The leading causes of crashes in Hawke's Bay in the six years to the end of 2014 were poor handling, poor observation, alcohol and speed, New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) data shows.

Over-confident drivers cause accidents.

Sixty-one per cent of crashes occurred in rural speed zones, with the remainder in urban speed zones.

Two-thirds of crashes happened on local roads, with the remainder on state highways.

Mr Broderick said messages were still not getting through to the public about speed - and their own perceptions of their ability with speed.

"Consequently, new cars add to the perception that doing over 80 or 100km/h is really quite safe because people are really cocooned within that vessel.

"The cars have good insulation, good tyres and good sound systems, so there's less road noise.

"Airbags, seatbelts and so on assist, but they don't stop your organs travelling at that speed if your vehicle comes to a sudden stop.

"It's those internal injuries that can be serious or fatal."

People needed to remember rural roads were not forgiving when travelling at speed, he said.

"Those roads are not sufficiently engineered to absorb impact when you lose control.

"It's a natural human thing that you don't have any experience of that unless you've been involved in a crash and survived it, so you don't drive based on the fact that that will happen to you.

"But unfortunately it happens to more of New Zealand society than it does in other developed societies in the world." Nationwide, nearly two-thirds of crashes occurred on local roads, with the remainder on state highways.

Just over half occurred in rural speed zones, with the remainder in urban speed zones.

Urban speed zones were roads where the speed limits were less than 80km/h.

Rural speed zones were roads where the speed limit was 80km/h or more.

NZTA road safety director Ernst Zollner said it was impossible to generalise about what type of road was safest, because the quality and standards within state highways and local roads varied greatly.

Road factors made up only a small percentage of the factors in crashes.

Mr Zollner said the data showed driver behaviour and environmental factors played a greater part.

"We do know that, no matter what causes a crash, your chances of avoiding serious injury or death are better on the roads which separate traffic and are designed to protect road users from mistakes in ways that rural roads and highways are less able to do." NZME