The road toll: Our readers feedback

In response to a Herald campaign, readers have written in tosuggest ways to stop the carnage on our highways.

Milne Collis


Not mentioned in the e-Herald safety report on pedestrians is the number of children killed around the school area.

In Canada there is a 35 km/h limit within half a kilometre of a school. I don't know the time details this is in force, but it seems a way of making motorists realise there is a school nearby and children about.

One thing that horrifies me in Tauranga is that there is a school on a 70 km/h stretch of road and, yes, you know there's something there at 3 pm when mum comes to pick up the kids but there are cars still prepared to go at 70 and possibly higher speeds.

I'd be interested in learning the general reaction, especially from the AA, to a proposal to follow Canada's speed rules around schools.

One thing I wouldn't like to see is the right to "demand to cross the road" that children have in Canada.

I understand that a child can walk to the kerb, hold his or her arm out in front, and cars have to stop to let the child cross the road. My son tells me it's nerve-racking when you first come across it but he's getting used to it now.


Kevin Pugh

I am the managing director of On Road New Zealand, owner and operator of a group of vehicle inspection centres.

Your article on crashes brings to the fore a concern my associates and I have had for several years.

Head-on crashes are usually put down to the driver crossing the centreline but often no serious investigation is made of the cause because the cars involved are too badly damaged.

We suspect brakes that pull to one side are often the culprit. The best way to test brakes is with dedicated roller machines but when many cars have a warrant of fitness test the machine used is a pendulum-based apparatus placed on the floor. This gives no indication of brake balance between the left and right side of the vehicle.

The Land Transport Safety Authority is under pressure from the Motor Trade Association, representing the 2800-odd garages issuing warrants, not to force its members to install the dedicated brake machines used at our inspection centres.


Allan Dick, Editor, Driver magazine


Steve Fitzgerald and Reg Barrett need to be challenged on their self-congratulatory claims that the road toll has come down because of tougher policing, photo licences etc. Last year I was at the Stuttgart HQ of Mercedes-Benz, where I spent two hours with the chief of road safety research. He would know more about road safety than the collective wisdom of the entire NZ Police and LTSA.

In the past 20 years the death toll in Germany has dropped from about 45,000 to about 15,000. The greatest single contributing factor? Advances in seatbelt technology followed by overall improved safety standards of motor vehicles (crash deformability, ABS, airbags etc) followed by improved response times to crash scenes and improved medical facilities and techniques.

Germany still has no speed limit on much of the autobahn system, and places huge emphasis on driver training and education, quality roading programmes and tough enforcement of sensible laws.

Ask Steve and Reg if they have any idea how much improved vehicle safety and improved medical facilities have contributed to the lowering of the road toll and they wouldn't have a clue.

We should learn from Germany, not Australia.


Andrew Smith


Tougher traffic laws will not save lives. We are already over-legislated. Superintendent Fitzgerald is wrong. If speed camera offences are to carry demerit points that is a serious interference with the rights of the individual. Blood-alcohol laws do not need changing, but enforcing. We need driver education and more patrol cars to deter speeding. Increase the penalties for speeding. Don't bring in new laws ... enforce them. Speed cameras are for revenue collection. In New Zealand the driving is generally bad by international standards. The answer is education.

Malcolm Bailey, North Shore City


The road toll has reduced dramatically since 1985 and the authorities have attributed this largely to their tackling the two main causes they perceive: drinking alcohol and speeding. However, there is a third cause that has not received the same attention: drivers dozing off at the wheel.

A few days ago I was a passenger in a car when the driver dozed off. How many unexplained accidents, particularly drivers alone, are caused by this?

The authorities need to investigate the hazard. It is not simply a matter of stopping and taking a break every two hours, as some vehicle manufacturers suggest. The incident I referred to occurred after less than 40 minutes' driving.


Robin Osborne, Tauranga


I think we really need to start at the beginning. The vast majority of us are taught to drive by our parents or friends, who learned the same way. The result is that a whole raft of bad and even dangerous practices are passed on out of ignorance.

For instance, have you noticed we are a nation of one-handed drivers? You watch people and they have only one hand on the steering wheel. The other is scratching themselves, hanging out a window, resting on a knee or doing something else.

I believe that everybody should be made to learn through properly accredited driving schools and the ordinary schools could be a good start.

How many people have been taught about skid control, proper gearbox use, overtaking techniques and so on, and have actually been tested to ensure proficiency?


Phil Holdstock, Auckland


Let's look back at the cars. Quite a few changes have been made to make them safer.

There have been no changes to reducing the top speed that these vehicles can do. I believe that cars' top speed should be governed down to between 110 and 120, and these top speeds to be obtained easily, ie 0-100 in 6 seconds.

Driver fatigue is another factor. Perhaps we should look at the railway system for ideas on how to counteract that with the car. The main idea that comes to mind is the "dead-man switch" that sounds an alarm every 10 minutes and prompts the driver to reset it or the car will shut down.


Peter Kammler, Warkworth


Overseas visitors often complain about New Zealand drivers - never about the roads. I agree. Having driven in Europe and the US, I believe what goes for road traffic in NZ would be termed a civil war overseas.

If the maturity of a society was judged by the way two-lane traffic merges into one, NZ would still be in the stone age.

Every nation has a certain level of risk that the average person finds acceptable. Unfortunately, New Zealanders accept - or even seek - higher risks, compared with, say, the Swiss.

This permeates all of society: sport, driving, you name it.

The introduction of anti-lock brakes has shown that an improvement in car safety is quickly offset by more risky driving. So it is only slightly cynical to suggest that our cars should have a sharp spike mounted in the centre of the steering wheel instead of an airbag.

Thus the desired personal risk could be achieved at far lower speeds.


Bob Simson, Mt Maunganui


As a cellphone user for many years, it seems strange to me that Queensland joined most other Australian states over 12 months ago in banning the use of hand-held phones in vehicles, including at traffic lights, and NZ is still debating the issue.

The day somebody can convince me that a person driving in heavy traffic, high speed or bad conditions etc, driving one-handed holding a phone to his or her ear is giving full attention to driving, I am a monkey's uncle.

Maybe the insurance people should look at how they handle accident claims where it can be proved a cellphone was being used.


Judd Davy


I have spent much of my life in all parts of the world being involved in the tourism industry.

I have held a driver's licence for 54 years and have endorsements one to six and P. For a start, it does not say on the licence what those endorsements cover, so when I am overseas the authorities cannot tell what vehicles I can drive, so I am forced to use my US licence.

With more and more tourists coming to NZ, there is an urgent need to standardise the road rules.

It is difficult enough for visitors who have driven all their lives on the right-hand side of the road to cope, without having to deal with irrational road rules.

Richard and Gabby Venter


As an ex-South African now citizen of this wonderful country, may I make an observation.

My wife and I have lived here for 5 1/2 years now and we feel the road toll could be cut quite dramatically if at least the following four points could be improved.

First, the most dangerous move we see quite often is people overtaking on blind rises and blind curves, even ignoring solid yellow or white lines painted in the centre of the roads.

Second is the pulling out of side streets and driveways without sufficient space before oncoming traffic and pedestrians.

Third is the amount of impatience we see in some motorists, who would rather take a chance and to hell with the consequences than have a look to see if the road is clear before moving out.

Fourth is the almost total disregard for pedestrians, who quite often have to jump for their lives, and I speak from experience as I run to work rather than risk using my car every day for the sake of 6km.