Editorial: Sobering crash stats for the Bay

A plea from police today for more vigilance on the part of drivers brings to mind Hawke's Bay Today's front page report of last Saturday.

That report detailed how almost 800 casualties on Hawke's Bay and Gisborne roads last year cost the community nearly $260 million.

"Casualties" are those injured or killed in road accidents. The information was collated by NZTA. The $260m figure - $259.8m to be precise - accounts for the costs of loss of life or quality of life, loss due to injury, medical and rehabilitation costs, property damage, and legal and court costs.

The report revealed that in 2010 there were 161 road trauma accidents, of which 25 were fatal while 136 were classified as serious. There were also 637 minor injuries from road accidents and 1379 non-injury crashes.

When broken down into districts, Hastings had the highest road toll, with 319 crashes, 12 of them fatal. Wairoa fared best, with 63 accidents and only one fatal; then Central Hawke's Bay with 61 accidents, two fatals; Gisborne with 181 accidents, six fatals; and Napier with 174 accidents, four fatals.

We published the figures on the first day of the school holidays, a period that is likely to be all the busier on our roads as it takes in a four-day weekend bounded by Hawke's Bay Anniversary Day on Friday, October 21 and Labour Day on Monday, October 24.

It's no surprise, then, that police have made a strong plea for drivers to take greater care on the road. They warn that there will be extra traffic on State Highways 1, 2 and 3 through the central North Island and that more patrol cars will be visible.

Everyone who lives in Hawke's Bay knows that we have a lot of road crashes. The 2010 crash statistics were a sobering reminder of the cost of these smashes to society - not that anyone can put a dollar value on the untold grief caused by sudden death or serious injury.

The school holidays are a good time to start doing a bit more than praying that we're lucky on the roads. It really is a time to drive to survive.