No lucky breaks in crash injuries

By SCOTT MACLEOD

Matthew Bond was nibbling a crabstick 10 days ago when the stolen taxi hit him hard, flinging him into the air like a rag doll, and sped off.

The 24-year-old electrician woke up among his scattered takeaways to the voice of a friend saying that maybe he should not lie on Asquith Rd, Mt Albert, at 4 am.

But when Mr Bond tried to move, he could not. It took ambulance medics to manage that.

Unlike the provisional toll of 462 people killed in road crashes last year, Mr Bond survived.

His name was not etched onto the grim roll of death, nor was his accident scene marked by a white cross.

Instead, he was one of the 6000 people rushed to hospital at a cost of millions of dollars in healthcare, accident compensation and lost earnings - part of what the boffins call "social cost" of road accidents.

Last year's toll was the lowest since records began in 1965.

But the figure does not tell the full story of the carnage.

For each of the 462 people killed on our roads, a further 10 were badly injured and 10 slightly hurt - for a total of nearly 12,000 people.

The social cost of those crashes? About $3 billion all-up, or $800 for every New Zealander. Traffic growth and speed-creep mean that figure will rise to $4.6 billion in 2010 if injury risk stays the same.

But the National Road Safety Committee has set an ambitious goal: to cut the road toll to 295 deaths and 1940 serious injuries by 2010.

In Mr Bond's case, he has already spent 10 days in Auckland Hospital and may stay there another month.

Highly paid surgeons are trying to reassemble his shattered right ankle. Other doctors are working on his fractured vertebrae, three broken ribs and bruised torso. Six nurses come every two hours to roll him over.

Mr Bond will need orthopaedic help until late March and will be unable to work until at least then, which means he will need an ACC benefit.

"We're talking tens of thousands of dollars before he leaves - maybe hundreds," one doctor told the Herald.

"It costs $400 to $500 a day just for the bed, before anyone does anything."

Unusually for Auckland, Mr Bond's injuries were caused on a suburban road. Land Transport Safety Authority regional manager Peter Kippenberger said 80 per cent of the social cost of Auckland road trauma came from motorway crashes.

But one element of Mr Bond's accident was typical - speed. Skidmarks extended 200m from his scattered dinner, indicating this was one of an estimated 1650 high-speed crashes last year.

Authority spokesman Craig Dowling said the public and media showed much less interest in the road injury tally than the death toll.

Yet the aftermath of a non-fatal crash could be just as horrific for relatives who were forced to spend years feeding their loved ones through stomach tubes.

"The road toll is always the focus of attention, but we would certainly prefer that people did look at all the consequences," Mr Dowling said.

"Injuries can be with people for a long time.

"It's a huge cost for society and the people who have to care for them."

The good news is that the injury rate is dropping even faster than the death toll.

The latest available comparison is for the years 1995 to 1997, when the number of injuries dropped 19 per cent, from 16,900 each year to 13,700.

Over the same period, the number of people hospitalised for road injuries fell 12 per cent, from 7020 to 6150.

Transport Minister Mark Gosche yesterday welcomed the news that last year's road toll was the lowest in 36 years but he also pointed to the continuing costs of the toll.

"Since 1995, 3107 mums and dads, sons and daughters never made it home," he said.

"Tens of thousands of others have been maimed and injured in car crashes.

"The fiscal price is staggering but the price paid by those left behind, our families and communities, is immeasurable, permanent and unacceptable."

The figures are little comfort for Matthew Bond. He is more worried about police efforts to catch the taxi-thief who hit him, or whether he will be able to play soccer again.

It could be months before he finds out.

* If you have suggestions for cutting the toll, contact Scott MacLeod at NZ Herald, Box 3290, Auckland, fax (09) 373-6421 or e-mail scott_macleod@herald.co.nz