Concerted drive to reduce road toll

The annual road toll last year fell to 452. PAULA OLIVER looks at the complex factors involved in further improving road safety.

Each day thousands of New Zealanders climb into warm, comfortable cars as if they were stepping into a safe haven.

Music playing, they sweep around corners and pick up some speed on the open road. More often than not they will arrive safely. But for others, that safe haven becomes a tomb. Last year 452 people were killed on the nation's 90,000km of road.

The figure was this week hailed as a success by road-safety campaigners, as it was an improvement on the previous year - and the lowest total in almost 40 years.

A glance through the records shows how far we have come. In 1973, the total was an horrific 843. But a stark warning of how quickly that downward trend can change came last month, when a terrible series of accidents claimed the lives of 57.

Police national road safety manager Superintendent Steve Fitzgerald, who blames speed and alcohol for many of the year's deaths, says a toll of 400 is achievable for this year.

But is that realistic? And how do we do it?

Law enforcers claim that the 183 highway patrol cars introduced last year had a direct impact on cutting the toll.

Northland, a traditional hot spot for accidents, returned a zero death toll for December. Police saturated Northland's roads over the holiday period, and it clearly paid dividends.

"We had the highway patrol, a rural drink drive group, and greater visibility all around during the holiday period. The open road speeds there fell by 3 to 4 km/h - there's a direct correlation between visibility and a lower toll," Fitzgerald says.

Work had also been carried out on some Northland roads.

Since the introduction of the highway patrol, New Zealand's level of policing has reached a level similar to Australia's - about 20 per cent of police business.

But the question of reducing the road toll encompasses more than speed and alcohol. Road users consistently argue that the nation's roads need improving, and tourists regularly write letters to the Herald complaining about the way we drive.

Another point mentioned is that it is too easy to get a licence in New Zealand.

Land Transport Safety Authority director David Wright says that while road design is an important factor in further reducing the toll, human error is what causes crashes.

"Road design certainly has an important part to play. The more forgiving a road is, the greater your chance if you get into a crash situation. In New Zealand we have a lot of undivided two-lane roads, and we have a lot of head-on crashes," Wright says.

He points to a Dutch concept known as self-explaining roads. These let you know how you should be driving. If it is a main arterial route, it will be designed for speed - and cyclists will be separated away. If it is a neighbourhood street, it will be designed to slow cars.

"In New Zealand, at times it can be difficult to tell if you're supposed to be going 50 km/h, 60 km/h or 100 km/h," Wright says.

The Netherlands is one of the safest countries to drive a car. Typically, no matter how the numbers are crunched, Sweden, Norway, Japan and Britain are among the countries with the lowest accident rates.

New Zealand's statistics could be far better - at the moment we fit into the middle of the field.

When asked why some countries are safer than others, Superintendent Fitzgerald says it has to do with their roads.

"Those countries have a safer infrastructure. They have divided highways, and that reduces serious crashes.

"And if you can have run-off areas on the side of the road, so that if you do make a mistake you can get off, then that's even better."

He says it is important to remember that many of New Zealand's roads were built 20 years ago when people travelled at 80 km/h.

In an effort to cut fatalities, the Auckland to Waikato expressway is to be fitted with median barriers. The same treatment is being given to a notorious stretch of road at the Kapiti Coast, near Wellington.

Improving these roads, however, costs a lot of money.

"Fixing blackspots has a lot to do with our working relationship with local authorities and Transit New Zealand," says Fitzgerald. "But look at the impact of road trauma on our health infrastructure. Beds could be freed up if we could cut accidents."

Many agree that New Zealand's roads could be improved, but argue that driver attitudes must improve with them. New Zealand's drivers are often described as aggressive, pushy and lacking in concentration.

If the roads are improved, won't they simply go faster? It comes down to what you call a good driver, Fitzgerald says.

"The Kiwi notion of a good driver is someone who can go around a racecourse and is technically sound at driving. That's only one part of it. There's concentration, being prepared for the actions of others, being aware of the law and being respectful and courteous towards others."

New Zealand's graduated driver licensing scheme, while attracting some criticism, is regarded well by international standards, Fitzgerald says.

The main area where our licensing system differs from overseas models is at the entry age - at 15, it is one of the lowest. While moves have been mooted in the past to lift this entry point, they have been countered by arguments that it is important to have that age in rural areas.

The LTSA is now working on novice driver initiatives with Transport Minister Mark Gosche, to make sure driver skills are accompanied by the correct attitude.

In an effort to combat the carnage on their roads, many countries around the world adopted vision documents in the 1990s to set themselves bold road toll goals.

The documents target many of the same areas: speed, drink driving, road improvements, harsher penalties, and higher standards for driver training.

Police here, after the horrific holiday toll, are looking at ways to increase the number of offences for which drivers can receive demerit points. They are also looking at the Australian idea of doubling demerit points during the holiday period.

But improving the road toll could be taken out of our hands by innovative car designers before we know it.

Already a car has been designed with a GPS system that knows the speed limits of the road it is on. When a driver tries to go faster the accelerator resists.

Another technological advance includes a car that measures following distance and ensures you don't go too close.

At the moment, Wright says the only thing holding back the technology is the question of liability - could a carmaker be liable for an accident?

"If you have driver aids, whose fault does it become? At the moment you crash and it's your fault."

As speed and alcohol offences are targeted heavily by police, attention is moving toward the other factors that could bring the toll down.

"It's not just idiots causing the crashes. It's people like us doing idiotic things from time to time," Fitzgerald says.

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