Obituary: Dr John Bailey

John Bailey

Scientist, road safety researcher. Died aged 61

Dr John Bailey, one of New Zealand's most dedicated researchers into road safety over more than three decades, seldom minced his words. If his research showed that a particular campaign against drink drivers, for example, was being ineffective he usually said so, not infrequently to the discomfort of officialdom.

In 1989, six years after the introduction of random stopping, he said the number of drunk drivers killing themselves was actually increasing.

"If random stopping was working effectively, we would have expected a reduction," he said. He wanted the random stopping message pushed harder and supported suggestions that drunk drivers who caused death should face manslaughter charges.

He believed that most drunk drivers were far from being innocent citizens making a one-off mistake. His studies showed 44 per cent of drunk drivers causing fatal accidents already had at least one conviction.

In 1992 he calculated that 90 per cent of drunk drivers were men, most between 18 and 28, many unemployed or in low-skill jobs.

A sought after expert by parliamentary select committees, Dr Bailey's conclusions over the years ranged widely.

He found, not unexpectedly, that bends were the biggest crash areas for drunk drivers and that about 60 per cent of fatalities caused by drunk drivers occurred on country roads.

Also that almost one in five drink-drivers convicted after surviving fatal road smashes reoffended within four years.

In 1997, he declared large-scale drink-drive blitzes were a waste of police time and taxpayers' money if drivers were tested before 10pm. Hard core drinkers were most likely to be driving between midnight and 5am.

A Wellingtonian, John Bailey, who died of motor neurone disease, completed bachelor and masters degrees in mathematics and chemistry at Victoria University, followed by a doctorate in quantum chemistry at Oxford University. He did much of his road safety research from 1970 with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and then the state-owned enterprise Environmental Science and Research.

In 1996 he set up his own business with his wife, Margaret, who survives him.