Sudden sharp rise in road deaths a mystery

By STUART DYE, transport reporter

The road toll is more than 50 deaths higher than for this time last year and is heading towards being the worst since 2000.

By the eve of Labour Weekend, a busy time on the roads, 378 people had died this year.

Last year's toll up to October 25 was 326.

New Zealand is far worse than the top-performing countries in the world, although improvements have been made in the past few years.

Transport Minister Paul Swain is currently working on a package of measures to further bring down the toll.

But road safety and Government agencies are at a loss to explain the leap in the number this year, though there are several theories.

Higher-quality cars with state-of-the-art safety features could be giving a false sense of security.

"But no matter what you're driving you will, if not be killed, then be very seriously injured if you crash at 100km/h," said authority spokesman Andy Knackstedt.

The authority's figures also show that 82 people killed this year had not been wearing seatbelts. The total for the whole of last year was 77, suggesting complacency and an immunity to advertising could be setting in.

AA spokesman George Fairbairn believed research was needed on why there had been so many fatal accidents this year.

The growing number of vehicles on the roads probably played a part in the increase, but other factors, such as driver fatigue, needed to be looked at, he said.

"When we thought we had got the number down it is worrying that it is so sharply coming back up."

Mr Fairbairn said roadworks needed a higher priority.

A $47 million package for road engineering was announced last week as part of the Government's road safety strategy to 2010.

Mr Swain is also preparing to submit a package of proposals to Parliament. The Herald understands it will include hidden speed cameras, demerit points for those caught on camera, lowering the blood-alcohol limit and lowering police tolerance to speed.

The aim is to reduce the road toll to 300 deaths and 4500 hospitalisations annually by 2010.

But National transport spokesman Roger Sowry said there are big holes in the strategy.

He believed a combination of factors had contributed to the number of deaths.

"And we are grossly underestimating people driving under the influence of drugs."

Hidden speed cameras were about gathering revenue and would do little to lower the road toll.

"People slow down when they see a camera. If they don't see it, they won't slow down."

Mr Sowry also said police resources were mistakenly being targeted at city roads when the highways were where the serious crashes happened.

Mr Swain's package of measures focuses on what he called "the three E's - engineering, education and enforcement".

While the money announced last week will deal with engineering and safety works at blackspots, a series of education initiatives will be presented late next month.

The final, and most controversial, measures are enforcement laws targeting speedsters and recidivist offenders and are expected to go before Parliament in December.

Deaths per 10,000 vehicles:

Norway 1.0

Sweden 1.1

United Kingdom 1.2

Japan 1.3

Australia 1.4

New Zealand 1.5

Canada 1.6

US 1.9

Herald Feature: Road safety