Asians get streetwise

By PHILIP ENGLISH

Don't try to bribe police officers.

Don't drive too fast. Or too slow.

And don't succumb to the lure of getting a fake driver's licence.

International students soaked up such messages at Unitec as they learned about New Zealand's roads and how to survive on them.

A lecture theatre was packed with 200 students as police, the Accident Compensation Corporation and the Auckland City Council joined the Unitec language learning centre for a road safety seminar.

Claire Dixon, a city council road safety co-ordinator, and David Pierce, from ACC, said because Asian drivers were so identifiable they took the blame for being bad drivers. But there was no data to suggest they were worse than anybody else.

A handful of reports have found Asian accident rates consistent for their percentage of the population, or slightly lower.

But one analysis of fatal accidents in Waikato last year found Asian drivers were involved in 10 per cent, compared with a constant 3 per cent for the previous five years.

Jessica Phuang, Asian liaison officer with the Auckland police, gave a firm message to students not to offer bribes.

Many Asians came to New Zealand with no experience of driving in rural areas, she said. At home, because populations were so dense, they did not have the opportunity to speed, but in New Zealand there was a temptation to drive faster.

She delivered equally strong advice on buying and selling cars, drivers' licences, fake licences, warrants of fitness, drink-driving, seat belts, accidents, speeding and driving too slowly.

"Yes, you can get fined for that too," said Miss Phuang, who was born in Singapore but has lived in both Malaysia and New Zealand.

She told the students that if they had a driver's licence from their own country they could use it only for a year after their arrival date, not for a year after they started driving.

She also warned them to carry their driver's licence at all times.

"If you don't have a driver's licence, don't drive."

The dangers of fake licences were also explained.

Miss Phuang said that unlike in many countries where only drivers were required to wear seatbelts, in New Zealand everybody in a car had to wear a belt.

There were cries of horror when Miss Phuang said she knew of someone who was prone not to wear a seatbelt who had an accident in which his skull was so badly damaged part of his brain had to be thrown away.

Moira Hobbs, the manager of the language learning centre, said the seminar was a pilot and if deemed successful the idea would be taken to other campuses.

"It's only a few weeks from exam time and it is a Friday afternoon. It has exceeded our expectations," she said.

The seminar was delivered in English to be uniform because most of the students were from China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam.

Degree student Samnang Sang, from Cambodia, said the seminar was good because it explained New Zealand's different laws.