New road safety campaign wants to get you home safe this Christmas

NZ Police National Manager for Road Policing Superintendent Steve Greally and NZ Transport Agency Senior Manager, Strategic Interventions Lisa Rossiter at the Plimmerton checkpoint. Photo / Supplied

The message for road users this summer is simple – drive safely, we want you here for Christmas.

This year's road toll stands at 339 – the highest it has been since 2010, when 375 people were killed on our roads.

To help prevent further tragedy over the festive season, Police and the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) have launched the We Want You Here For Christmas campaign.

The campaign is aimed at changing the mind set and behaviour of Kiwi drivers by focusing on four main contributors of carnage on our roads – speed, not wearing a seatbelt, distractions and impairment such as drink driving.

Superintendent Steve Greally takes a breathaliser sample at the Plimmerton chekpoint. Photo / Supplied

Assistant commissioner of road policing Sandra Venables said this year's high road toll was a "really sad situation", which has left a number of families, friends, work colleagues and the like dealing with grief and loss.

"This is what we want to prevent.

"We're looking forward to making sure that everyone gets home safely. We truly would love to get to Christmas with no more road fatalities."

Fitzy - Seatbelts

We got Sergeant Santa and his little helper to spread the word about wearing seatbelts. #WeWantYouHereForChristmas

Posted by New Zealand Police on Thursday, 30 November 2017

The campaign kicked off yesterday with the first of four social media videos, aimed at getting road safety messages across in a more light-hearted way.

The videos will back up police's on-road activity, which started last night with police officers out in force carrying out random breath testing, checking people's seatbelts and speed.

"It's about making people aware that road safety is everyone's responsibility. If you are driving a vehicle and you have passengers in that vehicle you have a huge responsibility to ensure that you all get to your destination safely," said Venables.

"The New Zealand Police can't be everywhere. So actually it's really important that people take the responsibility for road safety as well."

Venables said speed was a contributing factor in about a third of fatal crashes on our roads, and 15 per cent of injury crashes.

"Speed is the single biggest determinant in whether anyone is killed, injured or walks away unharmed."

Over the last Christmas/New Year holiday period, 19 people were killed and 104 seriously injured in 328 crashes.

More than half of those crashes were single-vehicle crashes in which a driver lost control or drove off the road, according to the Ministry of Transport.

Losing control contributed to 35 per cent of the crashes, while travelling too fast for the conditions was a factor in a quarter of the incidents. Other contributing factors included inattention, failing to give way or stop, not seeing the other party, failing to keep left, alcohol or drugs, inexperience and fatigue.

The official Christmas/New Year holiday road toll will begin at 4pm on December 22 and end at 6am on January 3, 2018.

NZ Police tips to staying safe on our roads this summer:
• Make it click: Everyone should have a seatbelt on. Make sure you check children in the car are wearing them too.
• Drive to the conditions: Sometimes that means going way below the speed limit. Be courteous if the roads are busy.
• Leave plenty of time to get to your destination so you don't have to rush.
• Don't drink and drive.
• Turn the phone off and don't use it.