NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather forecasts

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
    • The Great NZ Road Trip
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
    • Cooking the Books
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • What the Actual
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

Tourist drivers: the truth about crashes

NZ Herald
6 Jun, 2014 05:00 PM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

A lot of the crashes involving foreigners were consistent with errors made by Kiwi drivers.

A lot of the crashes involving foreigners were consistent with errors made by Kiwi drivers.

Nearly 600 road accidents last year that resulted in death or injury were caused by foreign visitors

Overseas drivers were involved in at least 558 crashes that resulted in death or injury last year.

In about three-quarters of the cases, the visitors were found at fault, including 11 crashes that were fatal.

Seven of those were attributed to the drivers failing "to adjust to local conditions", according to crash data recorded at the scenes.

Transport Agency safety spokeswoman Lisa Rossiter said a number of elements in New Zealand could cause "unfamiliar" drivers difficulty.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"The unfamiliar driver is caught out by road design and layout they're not used to, and unfamiliar signage ... [and] they get distracted by scenery."

Other factors could include failing to drive to speeds appropriate to New Zealand roads, or pulling out of rest areas on quiet roads into the wrong lane, Ms Rossiter added.

However, a lot of the crashes involving foreigners were consistent with errors made by Kiwi drivers too.

Over Queen's Birthday weekend, four people were killed by foreign drivers in two fatal crashes.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Johannes Jacobus Appelman, 52, of Holland allegedly failed to stop at a stop sign at Rakaia in Canterbury on Saturday night. He has been charged over the resulting crash, which killed Abigail Hone, 12, her friend Ella Summerfield, 12, and Ella's mother Sally, 49.

The previous night, on the Coromandel Peninsula, US tourist Cody Dickey crossed the centreline in his campervan, killing Aucklander Robyn Eilleen Derrick, a passenger in an oncoming four-wheel-drive.

The crash figures, released by the Transport Agency, were sourced from the police Crash Analysis System, which is estimated to capture data on about two-thirds of injury crashes — meaning there may have been more than 800 overseas drivers involved in injury crashes last year.

The 11 fatal crashes caused by them were down from a high of 17 in 2012. Ms Rossiter said the bottom of the South Island experienced more tourist-driver crashes than other areas, but work had begun in Central Otago relating to road safety and education under a Transport Agency "signature project" to decrease crashes involving foreign drivers.

Discover more

New Zealand

Tourist in court over crash

02 Jun 10:42 PM
New Zealand

Pupils mourn girls killed in crash

03 Jun 11:17 PM
New Zealand

Community in 'dark hole' after crash

04 Jun 05:00 PM
New Zealand

Crash tourist to meet victim's folks

05 Jun 05:00 PM

In the past 10 years, the highest percentage of fatal road crashes caused by visitors was just 4.2 per cent of the annual road toll, in 2012.

Last year, that dropped to 2.9.

However, the percentage has been slowly trending up over the past 20 years. In 1994, it was just 0.7 per cent.

In the past week, road safety campaigner and Dog & Lemon car review editor Clive Matthew-Wilson suggested the Government needed to tighten the rules for tourists to get behind the wheel in New Zealand.

Read: Tourist drivers: hire car manager quits

He said travellers should be banned from renting cars until they passed an online driving test.

But Prime Minister John Key does not believe laws need to be tightened.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"If you look at the accident rate of tourists who come and drive in New Zealand versus New Zealanders themselves, it's pretty consistent.

"They're about the same accident rate per capita. So I don't think that's a big issue ... [But] we do need to recognise that some of our roads are [on] quite difficult terrain for people who may be inexperienced drivers."

Meanwhile, up to 1,000 mourners are expected at Abi Hone's funeral at Sumner School on Monday.

Hone family spokesman Darren Wright said pupils would be given the option of remaining in class, going home or attending the funeral.

"It's completely up to them," Mr Wright said. "The family wants to get as much support as they can."

Abi and Ella both attended the school, and their families were integral in fundraising to build the hall where the funeral will be held.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

A large oak tree in the central playground has become a focal point for the grieving community, its trunk covered with cards, origami cranes, flowers, and balloons.

Mr Wright said relatives and friends of the Hone family were arriving from all the world, including England and France.

The support from them, and the wider community, was giving the Hones a "huge amount of strength".

"There are a lot of people hurting over this," Mr Wright said. "It seems to have very much impacted people across Canterbury and NZ."

It is unclear when the funerals for Ella and mum Sally will take place. Mrs Summerfield's husband, Shane, who was badly hurt in the crash and is still in Christchurch Hospital, is awake and talking but overwhelmed with grief, a family friend said.

The extended family are taking the double loss "pretty bloody tough", said Wyn Mossman, Mr Summerfield's business partner.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Last night, they released a short statement thanking the public, particularly the Sumner community, "for all their love and support".


- Additional reporting: Kurt Bayer

Save

    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

live
New Zealand

Watch: Major highway blocked by slip, Auckland flights cancelled as intense storm strikes

09 May 08:09 AM
Crime

Man's 11-day crime spree targets police by spitting and threatening to kill staff

09 May 08:00 AM
New Zealand

Auckland War Memorial Museum closed to public after asbestos discovery

09 May 07:49 AM

One tiny baby’s fight to survive

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

Watch: Major highway blocked by slip, Auckland flights cancelled as intense storm strikes
live

Watch: Major highway blocked by slip, Auckland flights cancelled as intense storm strikes

09 May 08:09 AM

Motorists are being warned to expect hazardous driving conditions.

Man's 11-day crime spree targets police by spitting and threatening to kill staff

Man's 11-day crime spree targets police by spitting and threatening to kill staff

09 May 08:00 AM
Auckland War Memorial Museum closed to public after asbestos discovery

Auckland War Memorial Museum closed to public after asbestos discovery

09 May 07:49 AM
'We've had enough': Red Square protest opposes pay equity changes

'We've had enough': Red Square protest opposes pay equity changes

09 May 07:21 AM
Connected workers are safer workers 
sponsored

Connected workers are safer workers 

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP