Biggest killers on our roads revealed

Speed is the biggest killer on New Zealand roads, says the Ministry of Transport. File photo / Alan Gibson

Speed is the biggest killer on New Zealand's roads, and young people and motorcyclists are the leading casualties, Ministry of Transport research shows.

It puts the proportion of deaths from speed-related crashes at 34.7 per cent of the road toll - a five-year high.

Young people remain first in the firing line - 15- to 24-year-olds were 32 per cent of last year's 366 road deaths, despite holding 12.6 per cent of licences.

That group had 117 deaths and accounted for 4946 of the 15,174 road injuries reported to the Transport Agency - 32.6 per cent of the total.

Motorcyclists and pillion passengers were also disproportionately represented, with 50 deaths, the worst toll for ten years.

The results come a fortnight before the close of submissions on 61 ideas the Government is asking New Zealanders to rank for a new safety strategy in the face of failed targets to reduce road carnage.

In 2002, Labour set a goal of no more than 300 road deaths and a maximum of 2200 road crash injuries by the end of next year.

Last year's toll of 366 was the lowest since 1959, but on Friday, the 12-month rolling total was up to 411.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce is reluctant to indicate Government preferences for a new strategy, saying he wants to hear first from those who own and use the roading network.

"But we've definitely said one of the priorities has to be young drivers," he said yesterday.

"That's a range of things, including driver training but also looking at things like blood alcohol levels, and [the driving] age."

Speed contributed to 127 road deaths and alcohol to 119, but the statistics do not show how many crashes were caused by a combination of the two.

Neither do they show how many young drivers in fatal crashes had excess blood alcohol levels, although those aged 15 to 24 accounted for 42.5 per cent of drink-drive offenders.

Among the ideas for the new strategy - outlined in a discussion paper called "Safer Journeys"- are lowering blood-alcohol limits for all drivers, a zero alcohol tolerance for those under 20, and raising the minimum driving age from 15 to 16 or 17.

The paper, on which submissions close on October 2, also proposes doubling the learner licence period to 12 months and encouraging youngsters to have 120 hours of supervised driving before going solo on restricted licences.

Proposals for slowing speeding drivers include more surveillance cameras and increases in demerit point penalties.

Associate Professor Sam Charlton, a Waikato University road safety psychologist, said last night the public poll could dilute safety efforts by producing a wide range of measures without focussing on a few hard options.

"Yes, young drivers are a problem in that we are failing them in the first six months of their restricted licences, when they are most at risk - but there are a lot of things we have to do a better job at," Dr Charlton said.

"I think the real way forward is to prioritise some few things and do everything necessary to address them.

"So if we decide collectively that we are going to work on young drivers, there's a whole range of things besides changing the licensing age - things we can do to the road, the graduated licence system, about alcohol."

Traffic Institute president Andy Foster called on the Government to make amends for what he called Labour's failure to take any big steps needed to meet its targets.

He said the driving age needed to be raised, but he also wanted older drivers to be re-tested before having their licences re-issued every 10 years.