Tourist drivers are involved in more accidents in high-tourism regions.
It's becoming a holiday season staple: road deaths and serious crashes linked to overseas drivers.
In the Rotorua District Court this week, Judge James Weir reflected public perception when he sent what he called a clear message to foreign drivers "who cause this sort of mayhem".
Peng Liu, 32, was driving on State Highway 5 near Wairakei on December 30 when he crossed the centre line and crashed into a car, seriously injuring a German husband and wife and their 15-year-old son. The boy and his 44-year-old mother remain in Waikato Hospital. The couple's three other children were also in the car.
Weir ordered Liu, a Chinese national, to pay the victims $20,000 in reparation before he leaves New Zealand and confiscated his passport until it is paid. He also disqualified Liu from driving for 18 months.
It's not the first time the courts have come down hard on tourists who cause serious accidents — though in most cases the circumstances and the driver's remorse lead to a lesser fine.
The judge mentioned the high media focus since last Queen's Birthday Weekend, when four people were killed in two crashes caused by overseas visitors. The case that galvanised concern occurred at a T-intersection near Rakaia, when Dutch businessman Johannes Jacobus Appelman missed a stop sign and T-boned a Volvo, killing 12-year-old Abi Hone, her friend Ella Summerfield, also 12, and Ella's mother Sally Summerfield, 49. A court later heard that Appelman, a regular visitor, was caught speeding (108 km/h) on the morning of the crash. The previous day, he had run off the road in a hired car but obtained a replacement car from another company. Appelman was ordered to pay $25,000 in reparation.
The deaths prompted racing driver and road safety campaigner Greg Murphy to call for restrictions to ensure the competency of overseas visitors before they get behind the wheel. In November, coroner Richard McElrea recommended that Transport Minister Simon Bridges look at barring "inexperienced" foreign licence holders from driving here.
Seemingly each time a tourist is involved in a serious crash, similar calls come from road safety bloggers, editorial writers and opposition politicians for measures ranging from age restrictions, stand-down periods and answering questionnaires to obtaining a full NZ licence.
Authorities and Government politicians wheel out responses which are becoming equally standard. Overseas drivers make only a small contribution to national road accident statistics: between 5 and 6 per cent of all injury crashes each year. Despite rising visitor numbers and the trend to self-drive, the figure has remained constant for more than a decade. The blackest period for fatal crashes involving foreign drivers was from 1997-2001.
This weakens the case for requirements that would place us on a limb from other countries where New Zealanders can freely drive — most have signed a UN Convention allowing foreigners to drive for up to a year on their national drivers' licence. The Government also worries tougher rules might risk tourists not coming here. We can't have it both ways, they warn.
So, it's a media beat-up then?
Well, yes and no. While national statistics suggest foreign drivers play only a small part in serious crashes, the picture differs markedly at district level. In high-tourism regions — particularly the West Coast, central Otago, Queenstown and Mackenzie country — overseas drivers are involved in a troubling proportion of accidents, as high as 37 per cent on the West Coast.
One explanation is the proportion of tourists to local drivers is much higher in rural areas than elsewhere. But NZ Transport Authority southern regional director Jim Harland suggests the combination of road conditions and foreign driver behaviour can produce a lethal cocktail.
Police — while insisting all drivers are capable of bad driving — also acknowledge a problem. They are targeting tourist and holiday routes this summer and encouraging motorists to report bad behaviour. A Queenstown-based policeman no doubt earned a ticking-off from top brass by telling media that most calls to the *555 mobile complaints line over New Year involved overseas drivers crossing the centre line, passing dangerously and speeding.
In some areas, police have seized the keys from rental car drivers — part of a wide-ranging response involving the Tourism Industry Association, Rental Vehicle Association, NZTA, police and councils.
What are the problems?
"Overseas drivers" are at fault in around three-quarters of the crashes in which they are involved (this covers those driving on foreign licences including tourists, students and new migrants who have 12 months to obtain a NZ licence). Police cited "failure to adapt to local conditions" as the cause in about a quarter of those accidents between 2009-13.
But the widely feared (and observed) "driving on the wrong side of the road" is not the leading culprit. Loss of control (often linked to speed) is a leading cause of head-on crashes, NZTA's Jim Harland says. A factor in loss-of-control accidents is the very thing that prompts tourists to get behind the wheel: captivating scenery in out-of-the-way locations. "The passenger says 'look at that lake' or 'there's Mt Cook' and suddenly you are swerving all over the road."
Roads and driving conditions in scenic regions — both coastal and mountainous — can be demanding. There are often fewer cars around — increasing the risk that those used to driving on the right may lapse. In the South Island, ice and downpours are hazards for much of the year.
Gravel roads are a novelty for some: last week, two Germans driving on gravel for the first time were saved by a tree when their van rolled down a bank on the way to Lake Tekapo. They blamed Google Maps for leading them astray.
Dangerous driving prompts frequent complaints — particularly misjudging distance when overtaking. Issues here include ignorance of our "no passing" yellow line system and single-lane highways; many countries at least have wire rope median barriers to prevent cars crossing the centre line. Open road speed limits play a part — many countries have higher limits and feedback from some is that ours are too low.
Other factors include language barriers and unfamiliar road signs — although most signs follow international norms. But the leading culprits are not Asians unused to our open roads and terrain — they mirror our main tourism and visitor sources. Australia and the UK (English-speaking countries where they drive on the left) head the tourist statistics, Are there other factors?
A survey of overseas visitors who hired a camper van found more than half had never driven one before.
Statistics show accidents are more likely to occur after tourists have been driving for a week or more — suggesting complacency is more an issue than unfamiliarity.
There are shake-your-head examples of stupidity, but that applies to local drivers as well. Singapore Airlines pilot Benjamin Yonghao Wu, 32, was banned from driving after running a stop sign near Rolleston on October 1 and colliding with a four-wheel-drive towing a horse float. Two passengers were seriously injured and require long-term rehabilitation; neither was wearing seatbelts.
Fatigue was to blame in a fatal crash on the Geraldine-Fairlie road on September 30, when Hong Kong national Shu Na Lo, 27, fell asleep at the wheel during daylight. The crash killed his 66-year-old mother, who was sleeping in the back seat, while his sister was seriously injured. A court heard the family left Melbourne at midnight and hired a car after arriving in Christchurch at 5am.
The fatigue issue has prompted calls for a stand-down period for visitors after long-haul flights — but officials argue this might equally apply to New Zealanders returning home from business trips.
Short of testing visitors on arrival, what can be done?
Under the Safer Journeys strategy, agencies have ushered in a suite of measures in the past year, chiefly in high-tourist motoring areas:
• The Rental Vehicle Association has introduced guidelines and encouraged members to quiz drivers when they pick up a car, to check for suitability and signs of fatigue.
• Stickers on steering wheels remind rental drivers to keep left and follow other road rules.
• Tourism Industry Association guidelines encourage accommodation providers to advise drivers on road conditions and stress safety.
• Air New Zealand is screening a road safety video on flights arriving from China.
• A camper van park at Auckland Airport allows new arrivals to sleep before hitting the road.
• Some districts have introduced on-road arrows reminding drivers to keep left and NZTA is improving signs near photo-stops and rest areas.
• More information on driving in NZ is available on tourist websites.
• South Island police are working with rental car companies to take incompetent drivers off the roads.
• Jan 9, Hastings — Scottish tourist Richard Webster Harbinson, 68, killed after crossing centre line and crashing into a tree. His wife and daughter require hospital care.
• Jan 6, near Cape Reinga, Northland — Spanish tourist on wrong side of road collides with oncoming vehicle on blind corner.
• Dec 30, Harihari, West Coast — Two South Korean tourists die when their rental car plunges off bridge.
• Dec 26: SH6, northern Southland — Invercargill resident Pengxiao Tao, 22, killed in collision with camper van driven by German national Mario Pieper. Two others seriously injured. Pieper admits careless driving causing death. He is due to be sentenced on Feb 24.
• Dec 3, near Kumara, West Coast — Chinese national Lijun Ma, 23, killed when car in which she is a passenger crosses centre line and crashes. Two others hospitalised. Driver Nana Zheng, a Chinese tourist, is banned from driving for two years.
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