McKenzie said she has huge respect for her colleagues and Fenz is proud to be working alongside Northland Road Safety Trust and the Northland Transportation Alliance as part of Road Safety Week for 2023.
She wanted people to support the week by taking part in the Road Safety Hero walk around Hātea Loop on Thursday to reinforce and pay respect to the efforts of all those people trying to keep us safe on Northland roads.
“Hats off to all of my frontline colleagues - fulltime staff and all of the amazing volunteer firefighters - who put their community first 24/7,” McKenzie said.
“We do this mahi because we care, but there is no denying we encounter some challenging and confronting scenes when attending road crashes. And the same goes for all first responders and those first on the scene of road crashes, because you take that stuff home with you regardless of how well you deal with it at the time. First responders deal with a lot of road crash trauma every year and it is really sad to see.
“It is important we acknowledge everyone who works so hard to keep us safe on our roads, and I encourage all road users to drive with extra caution and patience.”
She said so many people put in so much effort to make our roads safer and much of that work is done voluntarily, but everybody, as road users, needs to fly the flag for road safety by doing better.
Everyone can be a Road Safety Hero. Road Safety Week 2023 recognises everyone who is working to make our roads safer and support people following crashes - from emergency services to health professionals, transport engineers to school crossing patrols, road workers to community campaigners. It also enables everyone who uses roads to understand how they can take responsibility for their own safety and the safety of others.
For more information, visit: https://www.roadsafetyweek.org.nz/.
