Central Hawke's Bay taxpayers pay lowest amount in region for drink driving crashes

This car was impounded in 2018, on SH2, Clive,by Eastern District Traffic Alcohol Group (TAG), with support from Road Safe Hawke's Bay. Photo / Duncan Brown

Drink driving crashes cost Hawke's Bay taxpayers an estimated total of $50.3 million in ACC claims between 2016 and 2020.

In Wairoa the figures were a staggering $22.8m, amounting to $2542 for every person in the territory.

That figure dropped to $1.5m in Central Hawke's Bay which amounted to $99 for every person in the territory, making it the lowest in the region.

The figures, released by ACC under the Official Information Act to the Helen Clark Foundation, also showed that drink driving cost taxpayers $26m in the Hastings District, which amounted to $296 for every person in the territory.

But Doug Tate, Central Hawke's Bay District Council's group manager for customer and community partnerships, said the figure simply reflected the diversity in the make-up of the region's roading networks and communities.

"The safety of our community on our roads is always a priority, and we encourage people to drive responsibly," he said.

"It's not clear that we are doing anything differently, or better to any other district, recognising that there are significant differences to the make-up of our roading networks, across the region."

Breath testing is part of keeping people safe on our region's roads. Photo / Duncan Brown

He said part of the low cost could be down to the Land Transport programme which covered a range of work completed on the 1200km road network every year.

Tate said part of it was planned work which covered things such as general maintenance, re-sealing, pavement upgrades, bridge and structural programmes and road design improvements targeted at safety.

"Reactive work covers the fixing up of our network after it is damaged from general use or from weather events," Tate said.

"Together these programmes of work aim to ensure the usability of our roads for our residents with safety at the core."

He said the council's recently adopted Land Transport Strategic Framework also placed, "safety above all else", as the primary focus and the team were proud of the outcomes.

"Any accident on our network is serious and the team seek to learn from these events to ensure that our road network is not a contributing factor," Tate said.

"Following any serious accident, we work with relevant agencies to ensure we have the data and information that we need to feed back into our roading programmes."

He said the council worked closely with police to ensure the roads were safe, reliable and that driver behaviour was appropriate, through activities like Safer CHB.

Hastings deputy mayor Tania Kerr, who also sits on the Regional Transport Committee, reminded drivers that road safety was everyone's responsibility, adding the council worked with multiple agencies to assist with this.

Hastings District Council's deputy mayor Tania Kerr said safe driving was everyone's responsibility. Photo / Paul Taylor

Between 2016 and 2020, drink driving cost taxpayers $26m in Hastings District, which amounted to $296 for every person in the territory.

"We are mainly responsible for building the roads, but also contribute to promoting road safety through our membership of the Regional Transport Committee, Road Safe HB and in our role as lead agency of Safer Hastings, which is a coalition of 30 partners working together to keep people safe in the community, in homes, and on roads and footpaths," Kerr said.

"These efforts are ongoing to improve safety as well as reduce the costs of harm."

In 2019, Hastings District and Napier City councils adopted a joint Local Alcohol Policy that set supermarket and grocery alcohol trading hours, and the density and location of off-licences, she said.

"This is a policy designed to reduce alcohol-related harm and was subject to public consultation," Kerr said.

In that same year Hawke's Bay's Joint Alcohol Strategy Reference Group, led by Hastings District and Napier City councils, asked the Regional Council to consider removing alcohol advertising from its goBay buses.

Helen Clark Foundation spokesman Matt Shand said the take-away message from the data was that there were many hidden costs that come with alcohol consumption.

"Regardless of whether, or how much, we drink this is a massive debt that (has) to be repaid by future generations in ACC levies," Shand said.

The funding for alcohol-related crashes came from motor vehicle levies such as registrations and petrol tax.

The more alcohol-related crashes there were, the higher levies would get.

Shand said medical facilities, emergency departments, paramedics and police were already struggling to keep up with workloads.

Alcohol consumption only added to that.

"The big question is how much harm are we willing to accept."

Costs are calculated using historical data of people with similar injuries and estimates of how long they would need ACC support for, an ACC spokesperson said.