Government back-pedals on road code changes

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

The Government has shied away from reversing the requirement for left-turning vehicles to give way to the right, against recommendations of the Land Transport Safety Authority.

Its reluctance to change the turning rule, on top of delaying a decision on banning driving while using hand-held cellphones, is making the Automobile Association nervous about the Government's commitment to its road toll reduction target.

AA motoring policy manager Jayne Gale said yesterday that these two measures offered tangible safety improvements towards bringing the toll down to the target of no more than 300 deaths by 2010, after last year's setback in which it rose to 461 from 404 in 2002.

But a spokesman for Transport Safety Minister Harry Duynhoven denied the Government was easing off the safety pedal by calling for more research to justify the rule change and for officials to consider the wider issue of driver distractions before banning cellphones.

Although drivers are likely to face other rule changes in February at roundabouts and pedestrian-crossings, the safety authority's proposal to make vehicles turning right give way to traffic turning left has been shuffled down the regulatory pack.

This is despite an estimate that 56 injury crashes would be prevented a year, with annual social cost savings of $12.8 million, by bringing New Zealand back into line with the rest of the world.

Only Victoria in Australia had a similar rule to the one which has been in force on New Zealand roads since 1977, but that state reverted 11 years ago to the almost universal requirement for right-turning vehicles to give way to all opposing traffic.

Also relegated by this country's Cabinet for separate consideration "at a later date" is a proposed change to the give-way rule at T-junctions.

The safety authority wanted all vehicles approaching a T-junction from a minor road to yield to right-turning traffic from a through road.

But authority spokesman Andy Knackstedt said the Government had since decided to remove both give-way changes from the country's overall road user rule, due to be introduced in February.

This follows the first review of traffic rules in 27 years, and surviving changes are likely to include tighter requirements for approaches to intersections and a removal of the right of drivers to pass in front of a pedestrian on a crossing divided by a centre-line.

The existing left-turning rule, highly controversial for years after its introduction, was designed to reduce the risk of rear-end collisions for right-turning vehicles.

But collisions between right-turning vehicles and opposing straight-through traffic increased by more than 30 per cent in the 10 years to 1985, and although their number has since fallen, the proportional decline is far less than for any other intersection crashes.

The safety authority pointed to a 3.3 per cent reduction in injury crashes at urban intersections in Victoria after left-hand traffic regained the right of way, saying this removed the uncertainty facing right-turning vehicles trying to anticipate the direction of opposing drivers.

Although the authority found initial opposition to changing the rule from road-user groups such as the Automobile Association, it managed to turn that organisation as well as the police, driving instructors and traffic engineers to its thinking.

Ms Gale said that although a 1997 survey of members showed 76 per cent did not want a change, the AA now believed the risk of misjudgments by right-turning drivers trying to predict the intentions of oncoming traffic made this a necessary safety measure.