As we go about our daily business, an extraordinary milestone is quietly approaching in Northland.
Year in, year out, Northland's road toll has taken the lives of 25 to 30 people. Sometimes more.
Last year, however, there was a large drop in lives lost.
Twenty-two people died - the lowest number of fatalities on Northland roads for the past 41 years.
This year, something extraordinary has happened.
With just over three months of the year to go, only five people have died in Northland in 2011. It is, of course, five people too many. But viewed from the perspective that there are 20 to 25 more people alive than usual, it allows us to adopt a slightly celebratory tone.
A zero road toll would be the ultimate reward for the work that has gone into reducing the road toll, and is surely the goal that the orchestraters of the change that has seen the toll drop, would aspire to.
For the toll to drop, social change has been required.
And social change is something that does not happen overnight.
For decades, road safety soldiers such as traffic officers, and later, police, have worked away at the coalface. So have road safety groups such as RoadSafe Northland, who have lobbied hard for policy or rule changes, such as zero alcohol limits for under-20s. And millions have been spent on advertising the road safety message in media and on the roadside.
It was said some time ago that drink driving needed to become as socially unacceptable as domestic violence. The Northern Advocate certainly took the stance that it was socially unacceptable, and chose to publish the names of all persons caught drink driving in Northland. Apart from drivers who for whatever reason have their name suppressed, no one is excluded from that list.
To effect social change takes years, and finally, it seems, the results are being seen. What seemed like an impossibility, a zero road toll, is now a realistic goal.
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