Todd McClay: Work goes on to get road toll lower

As I write this article, the Easter weekend is about to begin. It's a busy few days for Rotorua with many locals travelling to other parts of the country for a short break and thousands of tourists visiting our city to make the most of all we have to offer.

Locals and visitors alike have one thing in common. They will be using our roads over this busy weekend and the need to be vigilant while behind the wheel is all the more pressing.

Each of us has a personal responsibility to be careful on the roads. To drive safely, paying extra attention around crossings and schools and spreading the message that alcohol and cars don't go together. The Government too has a role to play and road safety continues to be a priority in our second.

Last week, Associate Transport Minister Michael Woodhouse launched the Safer Journeys Action Plan 2013-15, a continuation of the successful Safer Journeys policy from 2011 to 2012.

Safer Journeys builds on a vision of a roading system increasingly free of serious injury and deaths by 2020. Already, work under the strategy has seen the Government progress actions for improving the safety of young drivers, while targeting drink-drivers and other high-risk drivers.

Some of the highly publicised changes which have been made include raising the driving age to 16, strengthening the restricted licence test and introducing a zero drink-drive limit for drivers under 20. We've also doubled the maximum penalty for drink or drugged driving causing death, introduced alcohol interlock and zero alcohol licences and announced new motorcycle safety initiatives. Progress has been made on improving the safety of our roads and roadsides.

Even with these recent improvements, the need for vigilance to meet the challenges ahead remains. The 2011-12 action plan contained 108 individual actions - with around 90 per cent of them being completed or under way. The newly announced 2013-15 plan has a more strategic approach and focuses on a small number of transformational actions with a high level of ambition.

It looks at issues like alcohol and speed across the safe system - roads and roadsides, users, vehicles, and speed. The National Road Safety Committee will champion cross-agency plans and wider partnerships to achieve successful road safety outcomes.

Taking a system-wide approach and sharing responsibility with stakeholders, partners and the public gives us the greatest chance of making our roads safer for everyone and builds on the great work achieved from the first action plan.

Over the past four years, the numbers of people killed or injured in crashes declined by about 20 per cent, but more must be done. We need to keep working on strengthening safety across all elements that can contribute to crashes - vehicles, speed, roads and roadsides, and road use.

As you read this article, I hope you have had an enjoyable Easter. I also hope you have been safe on our roads.