Editorial: Drive to the conditions, lift your right foot and live a little

Fatal crashes should not be inevitable in wet conditions but, time and again, we hear the same comment from police after road deaths. File photo / 123rf

Opinion

EDITORIAL

"We believe that the weather has been a factor," Waikato police acting area commander Andrew Mortimore declared, after one of the worst patches of road fatalities in recent times. Eight people died in five separate crashes around the country over the weekend.

"We've obviously had quite a long stretch of fine weather," Mortimore said, "a lot of heat, which does some funny things to the road, particularly the composition of the tar. When you add a bit of water from the rain late last week it can turn into quite adverse conditions for people to drive in."

Yes, it did rain after a very long stretch of sunny weather. But surely that's not enough reason for 11-year-old Riley and his 9-month-old stepbrother Eli to be orphaned after parents Brenda and Chris were killed in a crash near Cambridge on Saturday evening?

Earlier on Saturday morning, a woman died in a two-vehicle crash in Tahuna, 18km north of Morrinsville. On Saturday night a person died when their vehicle hit a power pole on State Highway 25 near Pipiroa, 15km southwest of Thames.

Another crash in Northland early on Sunday killed three people from the same family - Maurice Kareko, 35, Rhiannon Walters, 11, and Alec Walters, 5. A child was also critically hurt. That crash happened at 2.15am when a car smashed into a tree near Whananaki.

It is too early to confirm what caused any of these terrible events, but the acting area police commander is unlikely to be completely wrong.

The tragic fact is, too many of us believe the open road speed limit is carte blanche to drive as fast as we can, and the conditions be damned.

True, various factors contribute to crashes: our terrain, road design and maintenance, and older car stock. But poor driving and decision-making are the difference between life and death.

Yet nothing, it seems, raises more ire than talk of speed limits. Last June, the Herald revealed suggestions the majority of our roads should have their speed limits substantially reduced.

The Mega Maps online risk assessment tool suggested only 5 per cent of our open roads should have the 100km/h speed limit, most stretches of open road should be reduced to 60km/h or 80km/h, and most urban areas reduced to 30km/h or 40km/h.

Matching speeds to actual road conditions makes sense and could help reduce our road toll. It might even help official more clearly focus on which roads need upgrading. But even the benefits of improved roads could be negated if we simply saw them as opportunities to drive faster.

Lives are lost because we ignore the speed limit; don't drive to the conditions; drive when impaired by alcohol and drugs; text or talk on the phone while driving; drive when tired; speed up for that orange light; ignore that give-way sign; not wear seatbelts; overtake recklessly; flee police.

Conditions change, and our driving must also change. Slow down. Think. It's not speed limits that are killing is, it's our failure to drive appropriately.