Senior Sergeant Haydn Korach said that drivers’ attitudes and behaviour need to change if we want to reduce the road toll. Photo / NZME
Senior Sergeant Haydn Korach said that drivers’ attitudes and behaviour need to change if we want to reduce the road toll. Photo / NZME
Northland ended 2022 with the highest annual road toll it’s had in 22 years as police, road safety campaigners and health workers alike urge drivers to take care.
Last year 38 people died on Northland roads, the most since 2000 when there were 46 deaths.
Nationally New Zealand had itshighest road toll in four years, with 377 people dying on the country’s roads by the end of 2022.
The last time the road toll was as high was in 2018, with a significant drop seen during the years of Covid-19 lockdowns.
On average, one person is killed every day on New Zealand roads and another seven are seriously injured according to Northland Road Safety, which calls Northland roads “challenging and unforgiving”.
There was also a 40 per cent reduction in the number of breath tests carried out nationwide over the last five years according to data released to the AA under the Official Information Act (OIA).
Northland had the biggest decrease in the testing of 67 per cent which AA Northland District Council chairwoman Tracey Rissetto called “inexcusable.”
“Waka Kotahi have identified that the Far North is one of the highest risk areas for drink and drug driving with Northland as a region being high risk, yet they have dropped our testing by the biggest margin plus we have had recently the biggest population growth,” said Rissetto.
She said she didn’t think the drop could be attributed to Covid restrictions as the decreases are from 2014/15 to 2021.
AA Northland District Council chairwoman Tracey Rissetto says more funding is desperately needed to maintain our roads to a safe standard. Photo / Michael Cunningham
“Police HQ and Waka Kotahi need to explain why Northland is not getting the resources,
“Drivers fund the police for traffic enforcement, we need to see more breath testing and patrol cars on the road, and don’t rely on speed cameras to change behaviour,” said Rissetto.
The Government’s Road to Zero safety strategy and action plan had a target of reducing road deaths by 40 per cent by 2023.
Meanwhile, 40 per cent of Northland road fatalities last year were people not wearing restraints Rissetto said, “the momentum from the buckle-up campaigns has disappeared.”
Northland Police Senior Sergeant Haydn Korach said Covid impacted resourcing for breath testing and that the police have been targeting some more of our rural areas.
“We’re going up to the likes of Kaitaia... and all of that takes travel time and all that slower traffic flows, but they carry a higher risk for us as well.
“I’m sure over the next year, you’ll definitely see there’ll be a large increase in the number of breath tests that are completed,” Korach said.
Korach said that drivers’ attitudes and behaviour need to change if we want to reduce the road toll.
“We’re still losing far too many people to decisions that drivers are making. So what I mean by that is getting behind the wheel drunk, not wearing a safety belt, and using their cellphone while driving.
“These are all pretty simple things that people can choose not to do. Yet we’re constantly seeing people doing it and killing people and it’s very frustrating.”
Korach said those drinking need to pre-plan a safe ride home and recognise that across Northland it is common for there to be no public transport, Uber or taxis.
“At the end of the day, the drivers need to take responsibility for their own actions and realise that if they’re going to drink and drive then, you know put themselves and other people that they love at risk.”
The number of Northland transport-related hospitalisations was 1738 in 2021 according to Northland Road Safety.
“The majority of the patients that we treat with major trauma are as a result of motor vehicle collisions,” said Te Whatu Ora Northland surgical and support services general manager Mark McGinley.
“We’re receiving more severely injured, and more multiply-injured patients than we did previously.”
McGinley said speed reduction and investment in Northland roads will reduce the number of severe injuries that the health service sees, and also increase the long-term outcomes of those people.
“The speed of impact in road traffic collisions directly affects the injuries that we treat. The higher the speed, the more severe the injuries,” McGinley said.
RoadSafe Northland programme manager Ashley Johnston said there are communities across Northland that are really disadvantaged when it comes to safe driving support, for example, the lack of driver licensing resources.
“When we say driving to the conditions, I think people just assume that we’re talking about the weather and that’s not really what we’re talking about.
“When I say driving to the conditions I really mean what is the road in front of you.
“We’re talking about the road condition, we’re talking about the time of year, have we got heavy traffic volume? Are we respecting and being patient with other drivers?” Johnston explained.
“This is why we’re currently undergoing the speed review at the moment as some of our roads are safe to be driven at the speed limit, but actually some aren’t. Some are engineered to not be safe at 100km/h,” said Johnston.
Johnston said drivers and passengers need to go “back to basics” when it comes to what they can do to prevent injuries and death on the roads.
“A lot of people still aren’t wearing their seatbelts and it seems ludicrous that that is still happening.”
Data shows that the drivers of vehicles are most likely to die on Northland roads during a crash.
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency began a campaign raising awareness about the risks of drug-affected driving in 2022.
“Being really careful of mixing prescription medication with a glass of wine or a beer because that can be a lethal combination and a lot of people don’t look further into that,” Johnston said.
Research shows that when medications are combined with alcohol and illegal drugs, the risk of being involved in a fatal crash can increase by up to 23 times, according to Waka Kotahi.
Northland’s worst year for road deaths was 1989 when there were 54 deaths.
Nationally our highest annual road toll was in 1973 when a staggering 843 people died, back when seatbelts and motorcycle helmets were optional and the blood-alcohol limit was higher.
