Editorial: Mysteries of the road toll

So much has already been said and written about drink drivers - despite all the needless road deaths, publicity, campaigns, public naming and shaming, lost licences and lost jobs, people continue to get behind the wheel while over the limit. We named more than 40 local drink-drivers in Wednesday's paper - that's from just one month.

But with statistics this week detailing road deaths nationally and locally for the year and for the holiday period, another mystery raises its head.

How on earth are people still dying because they're not wearing seatbelts?

Of the 18 people killed on New Zealand roads over the official holiday period, four could have survived, said police, had they been wearing seatbelts.

Isn't putting on a belt as much a part of starting a trip as taking off the handbrake?

Maybe not - otherwise why would my car ding at me annoyingly while I'm still putting my belt on heading up the driveway, urging me to make it click.

Meanwhile, three people died on Rotorua's roads in 2011. Three too many, of course, but officials must be pleased the figure is well down on the 15 dead in 2010 and 10 dead in 2009.

I wonder if the tragic 2010 deaths of young Rotorua people, which stunned the community, significantly raised road safety awareness among their peers and made a real difference to driving behaviour.

Police said speed was one of the factors behind last year's deaths.

I mention this because a survey reported yesterday showed one driver in two admits speed rules are the ones he or she is most likely to break.

There are so many factors linked to crashes and most of them - including drinking, speed, seatbelts, fatigue, cellphones and other distractions - we can control. So we should make the effort and do so.

While acknowledging the tragedies on our roads in 2011, Rotorua's drivers, safety officials and road policing staff should nevertheless be congratulated on the relatively low toll.

And here's to a fatality-free 2012.