Whangarei death co-incides with launch of safety strategyNorth road toll soars

Northland's already grim road toll has risen again after a man died in a  car accident on Pipiwai Rd west of Whangarei.
The man, believed to be in his 30s, was heading towards Whangarei at about 10am when his car failed to take a corner near the intersection of Matarau and Pipiwai Rds. His vehicle rolled in a ditch, hit a parked car and clipped a power pole before ending up on its side. Fire officers removed the man from the crushed car.
The latest accident - which came on the same day the Government announced it would be spending more than $10million in Northland for strategic policing of fatal road safety issues - takes Northland's road toll to 23. The road toll stood at 17 at the same time last year.
Commenting on the road toll figure, Northland road policing manager Inspector Clifford Paxton said that, until all sectors of the community took ownership of road safety messages, people would continue to die.
"For whatever reason, the messages haven't been picked up. People are failing to engage, and think these sorts of things happen to someone else."
Family members and friends needed to tell them that people were dying from these types of behaviours, he said.
"It's as much a community response as a personal response."
A key message was that host responsibility could help by making sure drinkers didn't have access to vehicles and had an alternative way home, he said.
"The community is capable of making a difference 24/7 and is preferable to police intervention at the end."
He said police were still seeing the same factors involved in fatal accidents such as speed, alcohol and lack of restraint.
Road Safety co-ordinator for Roadsafe Northland Gillian Archer said there was a huge resistance among Northlanders to lowering the blood-alcohol level - a sign of a culture that wasn't sufficiently safety focused.
"People still drink and drive and think they can ... what's more important, safety or drinking and driving?"
Road deaths had far-reaching effects and a massive social cost on the community, resulting in  monetary costs which could be going into other things, Ms Archer said.
She was pleased drunk drivers would continue to have their names published in the newspaper: "The community need to know which people are putting their lives at risk on the road."
Messages and programmes are out there, yet so many people ignored basic, simple ways of keeping themselves safe, she said.