Editorial: Summertime dangers lurk for people taking risks

Coastguard volunteers help bring Kiwis back home safely to dry land across the coastlines, major rivers, and lakes.

Every summer, time in the sun turns to sadness for families throughout the country as Kiwis take to the roads and waterways.

These holidays the coronavirus will be an added factor with potential infections for people away from home.

Even before the holiday period begins, 2022 has been a bad year for deaths in road accidents.

At the start of this week there had been 359 provisional fatalities - 41 more than in 2021. Waikato had the highest proportion of accident deaths this year with 72.

It’s the worst toll since 378 road deaths in 2018.

More tourists visiting this summer than in the past two years should mean higher traffic volumes on the roads, although they made up a small proportion of fatal and serious injuries before the border closed with the pandemic, according to road safety expert Dr Fergus Tate.

An Auckland surgeon expressed concern that a mixture of road accidents and Covid-19 could put particular pressure on hospital emergency departments.

Li Hsee, consultant trauma and acute care surgeon at Auckland City Hospital, said: “Our worry is that there is going to be an increase in the number of road traffic crashes over the summertime. Our borders are open, there’s going to be more tourists around and people may not be familiar with our road code.“

Under pressure rural medical centres are braced for an influx of visitors and the impact of potential sickness among staff.

Drivers can help themselves by concentrating on their task, resting if tired, and avoiding driving too fast or under the influence of drink and drugs.

An AA spokesman said last month that more work was needed to improve the country’s highways.

Dylan Thomsen said: “A key thing would be medium barriers ... If you put a median barrier down a highway, generally you’re looking at a 60 per cent reduction in fatal and serious crashes.”

Once people get to hotspot destinations there are further dangers.

A report by Water Safety New Zealand which came out mid-year said that 2021 was well above the average for drownings.

Ninety people died by drowning, or 1.76 deaths per 100,000 people, compared to Australia’s 1.1.

This year drowning deaths were running ahead of 2021 at the same stage with 83 to Wednesday.

Water Safety New Zealand chief executive Daniel Gerrard said that over a 10-year average, the number of fatalities is about 80.

He said people put themselves in danger when they overestimated their abilities in dealing with the water while not being cautious enough about the risk they were taking or the conditions they were in.

More people were fishing for food during the cost-of-living crisis.

“We’re hearing it anecdotally from so many places now that risks are being taken in some of these situations out of a need, rather than a want.”

Auckland and Northland are the worst areas for drownings this year, according to ACC figures.

Reducing risk in a car or boat for safety reasons should boost people’s chances of enjoying a good summer.