Road Safety Week 2023: Northland heroes doing their part

Whangārei firefighter Ady McKenzie is one of the region’s Road Safety Heroes, with Road Safety Week this week hoping to help address Northland’s appalling road toll.

Northland has an appalling road safety record, and it’s often the region’s frontline emergency service workers who are first on the scene of road crashes.

This week is Road Safety Week and the theme is ‘Be a road safety hero’, recognising everyone who helps to make our roads safer and support people after a crash and explaining how we can all play a part in making journeys safer for everyone.

It is also a UN Global Road Safety Week, which has the theme ‘Streets for Life #RethinkMobility’, focusing on transport systems that are built for people and sustainable and active travel.

Northland’s road toll for 2023 stands at 12 so far, compared to 10 at the same stage of 2022. The 2022 total of 38 road deaths is the highest in 22 years.

One of those on the frontline is Northland Road Safety Champion and Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) senior firefighter Ady Mckenzie.

McKenzie said she has huge respect for her colleagues and Fenz is proud to be working alongside Northland Road Safety Trust and the Northland Transportation Alliance as part of Road Safety Week for 2023.

She wanted people to support the week by taking part in the Road Safety Hero walk around Hātea Loop on Thursday to reinforce and pay respect to the efforts of all those people trying to keep us safe on Northland roads.

“Hats off to all of my frontline colleagues - fulltime staff and all of the amazing volunteer firefighters - who put their community first 24/7,” McKenzie said.

“We do this mahi because we care, but there is no denying we encounter some challenging and confronting scenes when attending road crashes. And the same goes for all first responders and those first on the scene of road crashes, because you take that stuff home with you regardless of how well you deal with it at the time. First responders deal with a lot of road crash trauma every year and it is really sad to see.

“It is important we acknowledge everyone who works so hard to keep us safe on our roads, and I encourage all road users to drive with extra caution and patience.”

She said so many people put in so much effort to make our roads safer and much of that work is done voluntarily, but everybody, as road users, needs to fly the flag for road safety by doing better.

Everyone can be a Road Safety Hero. Road Safety Week 2023 recognises everyone who is working to make our roads safer and support people following crashes - from emergency services to health professionals, transport engineers to school crossing patrols, road workers to community campaigners. It also enables everyone who uses roads to understand how they can take responsibility for their own safety and the safety of others.

For more information, visit: https://www.roadsafetyweek.org.nz/.