As of December 27, 367 New Zealanders have died on the roads in 2022 — many for reasons Murphy believes are avoidable.
“I’m a huge advocate for having some very simple and basic skills training for people and I absolutely 100 percent know it would change the way people drive on the road,’’ Murphy said.
“We’ve got to change the way people drive on the road but you can’t tell them, it’s not a theory course. Doing theory for driving and thinking you’re going to get it right is lunacy.
“We’re all driving, we all need to be better at it to make sure we’re all supporting each other, respecting each other and looking after each other on the road.
“People make mistakes and a lot of people make those mistakes, not because they’re premeditated, but because they don’t know.”
It partly comes back to how we learn.
Greg Murphy says advertising campaigns, slogans and lowering speed limits aren't the best ways to address the road toll. Photo / NZME
Many of us begin by tootling about with mum or dad, before enrolling with a driving school to rehearse the practical test course.
There’s no doubt that method works, but it can also mean the same lack of knowledge and skills are passed on from generation to generation.
“We’re setting everybody up to fail so that needs a huge overhaul.”
His solution for drivers of all ages and stages is expert tuition.
“Now obviously that’s an investment. But isn’t that an investment in infrastructure and an investment in creating more jobs and building very useful tools to look after people and training truck drivers, bus drivers, you name it.
“Isn’t 5 or 6 million dollars in various regions around the country — putting in big pieces of asphalt and specially designed training facilities — isn’t that a small cost to actually be able to do a better job of preparing people and reducing injuries and saving lives on our roads?
“Trying to get that through to the bureaucrats and the politicians; they look at you like you’re an alien.
“But it also should be part of the curriculum. It’s a life skill. Literally it’s a lifesaving skill, but we still aren’t at that stage yet and that’s beyond me.’’
What public money that is spent on road safety is, in Murphy’s opinion, wasted on advertising campaigns and studies into speed limit changes that never address the actual issue of driving ability and knowledge.
“So we lower the speed because that reduces the mess. There’s still going to be a mess, but don’t you want to stop the mess from happening in the first place?’’
He was not a fan, for instance, of the process where stretches of State Highway 5, from Napier to Taupō, were reduced from 100km/h to 80km/h.
“The irony of that is that the piece that’s still 100km/h is from Bay View onto State Highway 5, all the way through Eskdale, which has two schools, a pretty much residential environment these days, cafe, wineries, petrol stations, you name it.
“It’s got all these things through there that are hazards and it’s become a much more busy area over the years. It’s got a T-intersection and traffic turning and all sorts of things going on and in their wisdom they left that part at 100km/h and what did they do? For the rest of it, most of which is still safe to travel at 100km/h, they reduced it to 80.
“That to me highlights the absolute lack of knowledge and understanding of the people who are making decisions around transport in this country
“There’s sections of the Napier-Taupō road that I agree should’ve been reduced, but the majority of the piece of road that’s been changed was fit for 100km/h all day every day.
“It’s the driving and the condition of the road and the maintenance on the road that are the contributing factors.”
But no matter what our training and no matter what the speed limit might be, we can all do something right this minute to reduce accidents.
“We are incredibly distracted these days, which is mainly through phones,” Murphy said.
“You can go to any school zone in the morning or afternoon and see people picking up their kids while looking at their phones and driving distracted.
“We are asking for trouble basically because of our lack of respect and lack of awareness when it comes to driving a motor vehicle safely.”
