Call for road safety policy review

The rising road toll has urged a leading road safety campaigner to call for a rethink of Government policy.

Clive Matthew-Wilson, whose pioneering work on crash testing and seatbelts led to changes in Government policy in 1999, said that blaming speeding and drinking for road deaths was a step backwards.

Speeding and drinking were factors in only a small percentage of fatal crashes and targeting them would have little effect on the road toll, said Mr Matthew-Wilson.

Fatigue was a factor in the majority of road deaths, but was not targeted. Road deaths tended to involve drivers at extremes - young, old, very fast, very drunk or very tired.

"Targeting the great majority of people is unhelpful because it waters down limited police resources and alienates the very people who are the least likely to cause road smashes," said Mr Matthew-Wilson.

But the Land Transport Safety Authority said the claims were not backed up by facts.

"New Zealand's road fatality rate has come down 50 per cent since 1990, in spite of significant increases in population, on-road vehicles and kilometres driven," LTSA spokesman Andy Knackstedt said.

"These gains haven't come on their own - they're the result of new enforcement measures, engineering works, road safety education and advertising, vehicle safety advances and community programmes.

"I have no idea what Clive is basing his statement that 'fatigue appears to be a contributing factor in the majority of road deaths' from."

Herald Feature: Road safety