A nation of cheap kills

Unsafe cars are killing young Kiwi drivers, according to new Australian research.

Drivers in their late teens and early 20s are hugely over-represented in crash statistics on both sides of the Tasman. In New Zealand, more than a third of road deaths last year involved people aged 15 to 24.

Alcohol, speed and carelessness are usually blamed for this over-representation, but a study by the Monash University Accident Research Centre suggests we should be looking at the kind of cars young people are driving.

A team of researchers from the Melbourne-based centre analysed 250,000 accidents involving young New Zealanders and Australians between 2001 and 2005, and found young people's cars - generally old, small and lacking injury protection - were a major contributing factor to road deaths.

Dr Stuart Newstead, one of the study's authors, said young people should be making safety the number-one priority when choosing a car. Instead, the study found they were the least likely of all demographics to drive safe cars.

"It's quite a paradox," said Newstead. "They need safety the most, but they're considering it the least."

Newstead's analysis found that if young drivers drove the safest cars available the road fatality and serious injury rate could be reduced by 80 per cent.

"Substantial benefits can be gained from choosing a safer car," said Newstead. "It's not just reducing your risk by 5 per cent, it's reducing your risk by up to 80 per cent."

Noting the unlikelihood of young people being able to afford the safest cars, the Monash team also analysed what would happen if the crash victims had been driving the safest vehicles in the age group of the cars they were driving. In that case, the number killed and seriously injured would still fall by 60 per cent.

Young people must be educated to put safety at the top of the list when buying cars, said Newstead. "There's so much good information about vehicle safety out there," he said. "But people just aren't putting safety on the agenda at all."

This was particularly important in New Zealand, where smaller cars were common.

Newstead said that young Aussie blokes drove big cars - Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores - and young women drove small cars. But in New Zealand, youngsters of both sexes tended to drive small cars, such as Japanese imports.

"That puts New Zealand at a high risk, so young people get a higher benefit for safer vehicle choices because they're all in small cars," he said.

But youngsters aren't all to blame. "Parents should try to be involved in their children's vehicle purchase and push safety as an issue," said Newstead.

They should also be more willing to take the plunge and lend their kids their own cars, which were more likely to be safer, he said. "Don't think about the material damage issues so much. Think about it in terms of trying to save their life if they have an accident."

Clive Matthew-Wilson, Kiwi author of the Dog and Lemon Guide, said the Government should require its departments to buy the safest cars possible, as these were the vehicles that would be sold to the young and the poor in 10 years.

It should also restrict the importation of unsafe cars. "In Australia all passenger vehicles must have electronic stability control from 2011 but the Government here has no plans to bring that in," said Matthew-Wilson.

"Which means there will be wave after wave of cheap Chinese cars with shoddy stability."

Stella Stocks, the Automobile Association's technical services general manager, would also like to see stricter vehicle safety standards. Cars that were rated just one out of five by the Australasian New Car Assessment Programme could still meet New Zealand Government safety standards, she said. "We would like to see them tighten up the minimum crash standard."

Leo Mortimer, the Ministry of Transport's safety manager, said that improving the quality of cars in New Zealand was a chief goal, but raising driving standards was just as important.

He said the ministry would continue to advertise the importance of electronic stability control. "We want to raise awareness of these sorts of features and how they can make a significant impact on safety."

But he confirmed there were no plans to make electronic stability control a legal requirement at this stage, as it would push up the cost of vehicles too much.

Instead, the Government would encourage "increased turnover" so more newer cars came into New Zealand and the feature would then become the norm.