Our View: Wake up to cost of crashes

It is no secret New Zealand has a huge number of car crashes but the social cost attributed to those accidents should serve as a wake-up call to all drivers to take more care.
The Bay of Plenty Times yesterday reported that car crashes are costing us $93 million a year in this region alone.
And one intersection is responsible for a massive share of the total.
The Western Bay has some of the most dangerous roads - last year a study showed State Highway 2 from Mount Maunganui to Te Puke, and from Tauranga to Waihi, was the second most dangerous in the country.
Roads with one star were the most dangerous and roads with five stars the safest. The Western Bay of Plenty roads had neither.
According to the project, between the AA and government agencies, a two-star highway is one that has major deficiencies, such as poor alignment, poor roadside conditions, inadequate median protection and poorly designed intersections at regular intervals.
The two local roads given two-star ratings were stretches of State Highway 35 (Pyes Pa Rd) and State Highway 29 (Kaimai Ranges).
Not surprisingly then, an intersection on SH29 topped the list of the Western Bay's most expensive junctions for social costs.
The social costs are calculated by adding the cost of loss of life and life quality, loss of output due to temporary incapacitation, medical costs, legal costs and property damage costs.
Tauranga City Council transportation operations manager Martin Parkes says this cost is entirely preventable with the majority of crashes a result of driver error or distraction.
A fatal crash costs $1.2 million - that's $8.4 million just this year.
Taxpayers are forking out millions for medical expenses, legal bills and numerous other costs. The gruesome TV advertisements that show the shocking consequences of poor driving seem to have made little impact on our statistics.
If more emphasis is placed on the monetary cost of car crashes perhaps more care will be taken in reducing the biggest cost of all - loss of life.