Sacrificing cars to save lives

More crashes but fewer deaths. It might sound strange, but it's part of a ground-breaking strategy to eliminate the road toll that is slowly gaining acceptance worldwide.

New Zealand road safety expert Tony Bliss, a World Bank senior road safety specialist, said the strategy - adopted in Sweden and the Netherlands - sought to "one day" eliminate the road toll completely.

Mr Bliss, a former high-ranking official with Land Transport New Zealand, is in New Zealand to speak at a traffic safety conference in Wellington.

He said Sweden and the Netherlands, recognised world pioneers in traffic safety measures, were looking to eliminate the road toll not by trying to cut down the number of crashes, but by trying to lessen their impact.

New Zealand's strategy calls for a reduction in the road toll to 300 by 2010.

Sweden and the Netherlands "are trying to set up their vehicles and roads in such a way as to eliminate death and serious injuries from crashes. You'll never eliminate crashes, but you can lessen their impact".

Initiatives include more roundabouts instead of traffic lights. Although there might be more crashes at roundabouts, they are usually at low speed and rarely fatal.

Sweden pioneered wire-rope median barriers to make narrow roads safer. They have been used on parts of the Auckland motorway system and along a stretch of State Highway 1 north of Wellington. There have been no deaths on the stretch of the highway since the 700-metre barrier was installed in November.

However, the European initiatives were not introduced without public resistance, Mr Bliss said.

When the barriers were first put in Sweden "only 2 per cent of people thought they were a good idea, but within a year that went up to 80 per cent. It shows the danger of turning road safety campaigns into popularity contests, because they would never have been built".

The Swedish initiative was a 30-year plan that overcame overseas scepticism to become the most talked-about road safety strategy in the world.

It was endorsed by Victoria police assistant commissioner Bob Hastings.

Victoria has slashed its annual road toll from 1000 to 300 in the past decade, with much of the credit given to high-profile enforcement campaigns. Mr Hastings said further reduction through enforcement was likely to be difficult.

"We've got to [reduce it] by designing safer roads and vehicles."

- NZPA