Opinion: Highway improvements can save lives - even when it's the driver's fault

It's not the road, it's the drivers. Yes, but the state of the road can be the difference between life and death, Sonya Bateson says. Photo/file

In our beautiful little slice of paradise, there lurks a hidden danger.

The Bay of Plenty is home to a road described as one of the most dangerous in the country - the stretch of State Highway 2 between Tauranga and Katikati.

The road itself is unremarkable - there aren't many sharp corners or tricky parts to navigate.

But there's something about that stretch of road that leads to people dying, and in large numbers.

There were 18 deaths, 35 serious injuries, 95 minor injury crashes from 2012 to 2016, the most deaths on all the roads classed as dangerous by NZTA.

Before he retired from the police towards the end of last year, former Senior Sergeant Ian Campion told the Bay of Plenty Times that speed, alcohol, not wearing seatbelts and distraction were common threads in last year's crashes throughout the wider Western Bay of Plenty area.

Those crashes he's talking about were all down to human error.

But if the roads had better safety features, would there have been fewer fatalities or less serious injuries to contend with?

Human error is always going to exist, it's in our nature to make mistakes.

The common refrain that "it's not the roads, it's the drivers" is right on the mark.

But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be doing everything we can to ensure those mistakes don't cost lives or livelihoods.

A median barrier can stop someone crossing the centre line and smashing into an oncoming car.

Side barriers can stop someone crashing into a ditch or a power pole.

Rumble strips can jolt someone awake as they unknowingly drift asleep.

All three are relatively simple changes that can mean a potentially fatal mistake becomes far less serious.

For that alone, they're changes worth making.