Road deaths hit grim milestone

By STUART DYE and NATASHA HARRIS

The road toll this year has already passed the number of people killed last year.

Five people were killed in three separate accidents yesterday, taking the toll to 410. Last year 404 people died on the roads.

It is a significant and tragic milestone for road safety authorities.

Three died following a collision near Taupo.

Sergeant Dave Frazer said a northbound car carrying three Hamilton people and a southbound car collided.

The 26-year-old driver of the northbound car and a 14-year-old backseat passenger died. The front-seat passenger, 24, was taken to Taupo Hospital in a moderate condition.

The driver of the other car, a 45-year-old man from Auckland, died before he reached Waikato Hospital. He is believed to be an Auckland volunteer firefighter.

A man was killed in Glenfield yesterday afternoon after his car hit a power pole.



A person died on State Highway 29 at Tauranga at 8.30pm after a two-car collision. Another person was taken to Tauranga Hospital with moderate injuries.

The accidents were three of five serious crashes over the weekend in which nine other people were admitted to hospital.

The Land Transport Safety Authority says more cars travelling more kilometres are causing an increasing number of crashes.

LTSA surveys show the total number of vehicle kilometres travelled has increased by 7.5 per cent since the last surveys in 2001.

Much of the increase has occurred in the past year.

The number of vehicle kilometres travelled on non-motorway open roads is up even more dramatically, by 15 per cent from 2001.

About three-quarters of all fatal crashes occur on open roads.

An analysis of crashes this year shows drink-driving has contributed to 28 per cent of fatal crashes and excessive speed to 34 per cent. Nearly 30 per cent of those killed this year were not wearing seatbelts.

"If it wasn't for the hard work of police enforcing the law and trying to keep a lid on things the road toll would be a lot worse than it is, but we need to do more than just, keep the lid on things," says LTSA director David Wright.

The Government has set a target of no more than 300 road deaths and no more than 4500 admissions to hospital each year by 2010.

Transport Minister Paul Swain is targeting the three Es - engineering, education and enforcement.

A package of measures around funding for engineering projects was unveiled last month.

Details of a new road safety education campaign will be announced tomorrow. Mr Swain said it would be the broadest education programme since the launch of the Road Safety Advertising Campaign in 1995.

Next month there will be announcements on tougher enforcement of speeding and recidivist drink-driving.

New Zealand's road death rate has dropped 50 per cent since 1990, in spite of significant increases in population, vehicles and distance driven.

But Mr Wright said more effort was needed. "We cannot expect to keep on making gains in the face of an increasing population and increasing traffic growth without introducing new measures to make the roads safer."

Herald Feature: Road safety