The “relatively poor road safety record” in Hawke’s Bay has been set out in four years of crash data; including the main drivers of fatal and serious injury crashes in the region.
The wide-ranging document – Moving Us Into the Future – has been published by the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council outlining why the region needs a $4.7 billion roading upgrade.
It covers areas such as predicted population growth over the coming decades, the financial cost of road closures to the local economy, public transport usage and reveals how almost half the region’s state highway network has “major deficiencies”.
The report also describes how the region has a “relatively poor road safety” record compared to other regions of New Zealand, the leading causes of road carnage throughout Hawke’s Bay, and how Wairoa registers highly for risk factors.
In the four years studied – 2018 to 2022 – crashes that were picked up in the Deaths and Serious Injuries data showed 69 people died and a further 461 were maimed in the Hawke’s Bay police area.
“With the increase in vehicles on our roads and the increased kilometres travelled around the region, road deaths and serious injuries have generally increased over the last five years, which is consistent with a concerning national trend,” the council report said.
Four major trends appeared amongst the identified causes in the data on serious crashes: speed; alcohol; lack of restraints; and distractions.
The document added that “generally, there is more than one casual factor attributed to a crash”.
Speeding was a “pervasive and punishing risk factor on our roads”, contributing to 27.2% of crashes resulting in death or serious injury.
“A large proportion of serious injury crashes occurred in areas with a speed limit of 50km/h. The data highlights that low-level speeding is an enduring challenge.”
Crashes that involved speed were “heavily skewed” towards Hawke’s Bay’s younger driving population, “with those aged 15-24 years over-represented and significantly more males represented”.
The report said it “starkly highlights” the importance of monitoring speeds on Hawke’s Bay roads, enforcement, and educating drivers on the “impacts of speed and their responsibility as road users”.
Drink-driving was a factor in almost 10% of fatal and serious injury crashes, slightly lower than the national average of 12.4%.
Males aged 20-29 were the age group deemed the “highest risk” in the data.
Driver distraction – including the use of mobile phones by motorists – also figured in the causes.
“Females are heavily represented ... where distraction was a contributing factor across almost every age group,” the report said.
“Conversely, males are the only group in the 25-34 and 40-44 [ages] where distraction is a contributing factor.”
The final major factor was not wearing seatbelts. In the four years studied, 17 people who died and 19 who were seriously injured, were known not to be wearing a restraint.
“Unfortunately, those killed or seriously injured while not wearing seatbelts tended to be younger [15-34 years] and were more likely to be males.”
The report also said the Wairoa district was “disproportionally represented” across a range of risk factors.
“Ongoing interventions, enforcement, and driver education and awareness-raising initiatives will be required to enable material behaviour change.”
Under a metric created by the Ministry of Transport – which calculated the cost of a death at $4.916 million and a serious injury at $923,000 – deaths and serious road injuries across Hawke’s Bay cost $744.7m between 2018-2022.
“The social cost ... includes the costs to individuals, as well as the costs on the health system and costs due to delays in the network. It reflects the permanent and profound devastation that road trauma has on loved ones, families, workplaces, and communities.
“If these costs were avoided through a drastic reduction in [serious crash deaths and injuries] the saving could be invested in other parts of society.”
The document said the assorted data illustrated the “scope, scale and impact that long-standing and risk factors have in our communities”.
Neil Reid is a Napier-based senior reporter who covers general news, features and sport. He joined the Herald in 2014 and has 30 years of newsroom experience.
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