Listening to, and reading, a number of ill-informed media commentaries about deaths on our roads has prompted this week's chat. I keep hearing our roads are the most dangerous places you can be, and the most likely arena to die in. Rubbish.
ACC figures show the home is the most dangerous place for Kiwis. Accidents in the home killed nearly 600 people in the year to last June - an average of more than 11 a week and much more than the road toll - and 658,000 people suffered household injuries, again more than road injuries.
So please, will people stop the knee-jerk attitude towards road deaths as it's inevitable people are going to die on the roads. You will never eradicate road fatalities just as you'll never stop drowning. It is what it is.
In the case of motoring, when a couple of tonnes of metal hits another couple of tonnes of metal, it will, on occasion, result in a death.
If you want to stop unnecessary Kiwi deaths, put a stop to DIY in and around the home, or people swimming at Piha. I don't see any rules or regulations surrounding just about any form of DIY or access to open water. I can go and buy the biggest, fattest mother of all chainsaws and have a go at chopping down anything I like near anyone. Or, I can jump into a raging sea, ignoring all the signs and advice, and still be rescued without any repercussions.
At least you have to pass some sort of test - albeit a pathetic one - to get behind the wheel of a car or truck.
I have said numerous times before, and I'll say it again - it's the abjectly poor standard of driver skills that are killing people on New Zealand roads.
Our roads are the equivalent of blacktop goat tracks compared to most of the developed world yet there's no system in place to train young, new, or immigrant drivers how to deal with our particular conditions.
In Europe they have multi-lane autobahns and the like, in America most of the roads are as straight as an arrow and wide enough to house a campsite. Even Australia worked out that populations are bound to increase and so built their roads wide and sweeping.
But not here in NZ. Small minded people, who still think in a small minded manner, are building small roads that cause major traffic jams and inspire impatience, which results in frustration, culminating in rash decision making, and on occasion, the odd death.
I'll give you an example. The new toll expressway just north of Auckland was supposed to relieve traffic congestion. Yeah right.
Some numpty built a two-lane motorway that reduced to a single lane for the tunnel and hence an instant bottle jam. On the exit of the tunnel the road sort of expands into two lanes before suddenly reducing back into a single lane as traffic comes thundering down the old road on your left.
I'd wager that some civil engineer cocked it up and got his measurements wrong and missed joining up the roads correctly.
To recap; you will not stop deaths on the road - all you can do is manage them. And that's not as difficult as various commentators and the government make out.
Instead of throwing huge amounts of money at dull advertising campaigns telling us to slow down, why not make getting a licence to drive a vehicle one of the hardest thing to do.
For goodness sake, just raising the age to 17 before you can apply to for a licence will make a major difference.
- Eric Thompson
Easter 2010 holiday road toll (4pm Thursday - 6am Tuesday)
View Easter 2010 holiday road toll in a larger map
