Monthly road toll drops to a record low

By SCOTT INGLIS

The national road toll for August is 21 - the lowest toll of any month since records began in 1965.

The provisional figure is down from the year's high of 50 in May, contrasts with the five-year August average of 41 and follows a downward trend from previous months.

The previous monthly low was last October, when 26 people died. The road toll for the year to date is 298, compared with 299 at the same time last year.

Police partly credit their new Highway Patrol for the recent drop in the toll. They say the patrol has had a huge impact on the open roads and contributed to a tripling in the number of speeding tickets issued.

The stricter enforcement of speed limits is also having an impact, with officers ticketing drivers travelling at more than the standard tolerance of 10 km/h over the legal limit.

The road toll figures, released yesterday, show that in June and July there were 31 and 32 road fatalities respectively, which, when put with August, brings the lowest three-month period since records began.

Of the 21 deaths last month, four were pedestrians and nearly all victims were men.

Auckland has had 43 road deaths so far this year (four fewer than at the same time last year) while Waikato has had 56, down from 74.

The national road safety manager, Superintendent Steve Fitzgerald, said police believed the Highway Patrol and extra speed ticketing were among the driving forces behind the drop.

In July, nearly 29,000 speeding tickets were issued by officers - compared with 10,000 the previous July.

In Northland and Waikato the number of speeding tickets issued had risen six-fold.

"It is proven that lives can be saved if people watch their speed," he said.

"The Highway Patrol is working hard to reduce unsafe driving practices on New Zealand's state highways."

Mr Fitzgerald said the pressure on speeding drivers would continue nationwide and the Highway Patrol would continue to be expanded into the South Island.

However, urban speed-related deaths and accidents have not dropped and police would "step up the pressure there" in the next few months.

"It's not a popularity contest we're in. We need public support - but public support and popularity are two different things," he said.

A Land Transport Safety Authority spokesman, Craig Dowling, said that if the August result could be achieved every month, the annual toll would be just over 250, rather than nearer 500 - putting New Zealand among the safest countries in the world.

Apart from speed, drink-driving, fatigue and failing to give way were significant crash factors, he said.

"The lesson there is pretty obvious. New Zealand roads can be very unforgiving and you have to keep your speed appropriate not only to the weather but also to road conditions."

Last year's toll of 462 was also the lowest since 1965. The previous low, 501, was in 1998.

The toll in 1999 was 509.

The worst year was 1973, when 843 people died.

The police target road toll for 2001 is 420 but Mr Fitzgerald said significant improvements would be needed to achieve that.

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