The Front Page revisited: Road safety expert busts myths on what can and can’t reduce road toll

New Zealand's tarmac remains unsafe despite concerted efforts to reduce our annual road toll. Photo / NZME

Over the next few weeks, The Front Page podcast is revisiting some of the major stories covered in 2022.

Today, we look at the road toll, which has again served as a reminder that driving in New Zealand isn’t always safe.

The latest data for 2022 shows that our road toll has exceeded 350 deaths for the first time since 2018.

And as New Zealanders prepare for their getaways, these numbers could become even worse before we hit the new year.

So why does this keep happening? Why are our safety strategies not working? And what should we be doing to keep drivers safe on the tarmac?

Road safety expert Dr Fergus Tate stepped in in June to help us better understand the dangers on our roads. And his insights have only become more relevant over time.

In our discussion, he helped separate fact from fiction when it comes to the most common claims we hear about the shameful loss of life on our tarmac every year.

The road toll is getting worse and worse

Tate: “Over the last 30 to 40 years, since the ‘70s and ‘80s, we’ve actually been making reasonable progress in reducing the road toll against an increasing number of vehicles and an increasing amount of travel. But that progress has plateaued over the last decade. There are a number of potential reasons for that, including economic factors, lack of enforcement, and a lack of real progress on infrastructure improvements except on a very small number of roads.”

Tourists are to blame

Tate: “The last two or three years have shown it’s not tourist drivers at all, and we need to be accountable for our own behaviours. But even before the border closed, tourists made up a very small proportion of our fatal and serious injuries - less than 5 per cent. They were higher on certain roads, like the Milford Road, but they were still a small proportion. Blaming tourists is a cheap cop-out.”

Drivers need more training

Tate: “It’s important to understand that when it comes to road user behaviour, the critical issue isn’t skills or knowledge but motivation. The primary behaviours that contribute to serious crashes are speeding, not wearing seatbelts, not wearing helmets and impaired driving. None of these are skills issues. None of them would be addressed by more driver training. They’re motivational issues such as wearing seat belts and helmets or choosing not to drive after drinking or consuming drugs…

“The evidence on advanced driver training schemes is also mixed. Advanced driver training sessions lead to higher levels of confidence and actually lead to higher crash rates for those that have been trained. So we have to be very, very careful about how we interpret this.”

Harsher penalties will reduce the road toll

Tate: “You need to separate this into two parts: the people who have motivational issues and are possibly pushing their risk envelopes; and secondly those that make mistakes. Higher penalties probably don’t address the mistakes that people make, but they do work on the motivational side. But it’s not just the penalties. It’s also the likelihood of being caught. It’s the combination of catch and penalty that actually motivates people. You can have as high penalties as you like, but if people don’t feel like they’re going to be apprehended, they don’t care. Similarly, if you have high enforcement but low penalties, then it’s effectively a tax. We need a balance between these things.”

Listen to the full episode of The Front Page for more reality checks on common road safety myths