Speed kills more than alcohol

Deaths on Auckland roads caused by speeding rose last year - to exactly three times the toll for 2000 - but alcohol-related fatalities were down.

Speed was blamed for 45 deaths, up from 15 just four years earlier.

The failure of many Auckland drivers to heed the "speed kills" message has prompted the region's road safety co-ordinator to call for strong enforcement and community campaigns.

Although the overall death toll from crashes of all types has been falling this year, co-ordinator Andrew Bell, of the Auckland Regional Transport Authority, said the increase in fatalities towards the end of last December caused by excessive speed was of major concern.

"It highlights the need for renewed emphasis on decreasing speed."

Mr Bell told the Auckland Regional Land Transport Committee that "significant enforcement initiatives and community participation are required to address this concerning four-year upward trend in speed-related deaths."

Auckland City Council transport committee chairman Richard Simpson called the increase "quite shocking" but gained an acknowledgment from Mr Bell that population growth was a factor.

Overall road deaths in the Auckland region were provisionally down for the 12 months to August 31, to 76 from 88 for the same period a year earlier.

A statistical analysis of causes is not yet available from these, but figures Mr Bell reported to the regional committee for the 2004 calendar year blamed excessive speed for 45 deaths, up from 37 in 2003 and just 15 in 2000.

Alcohol-related road deaths fell by five last year, to 29, although this was still almost twice the 2000 toll of 16 and there was an overlap with those caused by speeding.

The overall toll grew a lesser 22 per cent over the four years, to 80 deaths last year from all causes, compared with 79 in 2003 and 66 in 2000.

Mr Bell attributed the lower overall rise to recent reductions in pedestrian deaths, of which there were 13 last year compared with 15 in 2003, 18 in 2001 and 11 in 2000.

There were 370 pedestrian casualties - including both death and injury - down from last year's peak of 428 and the first decrease for at least six years.

Children are usually over-represented in pedestrian casualty statistics, and the downturn suggests safety messages to motorists urging them to slow down near schools may be paying off.

Roadside hazards, poor observation and mishaps at bends were also listed as key contributing factors in Auckland crashes and requiring what Mr Bell said were significant "engineering interventions".

He noted that the new Auckland regional land transport strategy had $512 million allocated to road safety between now and 2016, out of an overall transport spending of $11 billion. Engineering safety improvement on urban and rural arterial roads were expected to cost $507 million, leaving $5 million for extra safety education.

It was a key task to see the money included in a regional transport plan.