Stats show foreign drivers not so bad

Foreign drivers are often blamed for some of the road toll but transport reporter SCOTT MACLEOD says they are only a small part of the problem.

Stuart Leslie had owned his Nissan car for less than two hours when it almost became a coffin.

It was December 1 last year, and the Mangonui farmer was driving through the Brynderwyns on State Highway 1 when two tourists pulled onto the wrong side of the road and hit the Nissan head-on.

The Dutch driver died, her passenger broke her arm, and Mr Leslie has spent the past two months in hospital with 13 leg fractures.

It was one of about 300 death and injury road smashes involving foreigners which take place each year.

Many New Zealanders complain about foreign drivers, but figures from the Land Transport Safety Authority show only 2.3 per cent of fatal smashes in the past five years involved a foreign driver - 11 to 12 deaths annually.

But LTSA spokesman Andy Knackstedt says that in many cases foreign drivers might not be the problem. They can be involved in smashes without causing them. Subtract the accidents caused by other factors and the figure drops to 1.7 per cent, or about 8.5 deaths in a typical annual road toll of 500.

Foreigners were involved in 275 injury accidents in 1999, or 2.1 per cent of the national total. However, crash analysts found that their driving contributed to just 0.8 per cent of the national total.

Hertz Rent A Car managing director Murray Hodges said that, in his experience, tourists were generally no worse at driving than locals. Hertz provided foreigners with tapes and brochures to help them learn our road rules.

Nevertheless, there is no doubt foreigners can and do cause accidents by driving on the wrong side of New Zealand's roads or lacking knowledge of traffic laws.

In Mr Leslie's case, the two Dutch women had switched seats - and the driving role - just before the accident. For three days they had constantly reminded each other to keep left, but the passenger was reading a map when their rental car pulled out of State Highway 12 and onto the wrong side of the road.

"What gets me is that the police are spending millions on drink-driving," Mr Leslie said from Whangarei Hospital.

"Yet tourists can come here, get into a rental car and off they go."

Mr Leslie said one solution would be for rental firms to put "keep left" signs in all their vehicles - a suggestion echoed in several letters to the Herald in response to the ongoing Road Toll series.

One reader from Papatoetoe suggested placing a clear sticker on the bottom of rental car windscreens, with little arrows pointing to the left side of the car.

The Government has no plans to introduce any of those suggestions, but it is working on a 10-year strategy which may involve stricter rules for foreigners.

One area legislators may examine is the fact that drivers with foreign driver's licences can legally drive on our roads for up to a year without having to sit any tests.

A fact sheet for tourists, issued in October 1999, urged readers to learn about "our unique give-way rule" before taking to the country's roads.

However, nobody is responsible for making sure foreigners do learn that rule - and all the others.

Meanwhile, the Land Transport Safety Authority says too many people are failing to put their kids in proper car seats.

An LTSA survey of 4100 child passengers issued yesterday showed 21 per cent were not appropriately restrained.

Authority director David Wright said 120 children under the age of five had been killed in car crashes in the past 10 years.

It was likely that 33 of those children would have lived survived if they had been wearing appropriate and properly fitted restraints.

"The law on this is clear: all children under the age of five years must be properly restrained by an approved child restraint when travelling in cars and vans. Wearing an adult safety belt alone is not enough," Mr Wright said.

Herald Online feature: Cutting the road toll

Do you have a suggestion for cutting the road toll?

E-mail Scott MacLeod. Please supply your name and address.

Links:

Are you part of the dying race?

Take an intersection safety test

LTSA: Road toll update

Massey University: Effectiveness of safety advertising