The Press TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 1967. Comparing Road Tolls

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31335, 4 April 1967, Page 16

The Press TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 1967. Comparing Road Tolls

New Zealand drivers may feel flattered upon learning that two road safety experts have come here from New South Wales to study drivers, driving, roads, vehicles, and safety measures. Their visit coincides with the news that the number of road deaths in New Zealand this year is 53 per cent higher than the death toll by the end of March, 1966. This alone should discourage tbe belief that driving in New Zealand is “ not so bad ”, The visitors have observed that when numbers of vehicles are compared the proportionate number of road deaths in New South Wales is almost twice as high as that in New Zealand. This comparison may be quite misleading. Cars do not kill when they are standing still. Do New South Wales motorists drive farther and more often than New Zealanders? Before drawing any conclusions our visitors should compare vehicle mileage with the number of accidents. A calculation of the number of accidents in relation to vehlcle-miles is not easy to make and, to complete a comparison between countries, road conditions must be considered. But vehicle numbers alone have very little to do with a country’s safety record, except that they, in part, determine traffic density. Americans suffer proportionately more fatal road accidents than do New Zealanders when vehicle numbers in the United States and New Zealand are compared. One may conclude from this that a higher density of vehicles is likely to increase the rate of accidents in relation to vehicle numbers. Nevertheless, Americans drive more miles without fatal accidents than do New Zealanders. From this one might reasonably conclude that driving standards, traffic engineering, and safety measures play a part in determining the difference. It is to be hoped that the New South Wales experts will glean much useful knowledge here and that our traffic authorities will learn from them, too. It will be unfortunate if the merits of what the Australians find are assessed on the almost meaningless comparison of accidents and vehicle numbers. Such figures have been used for far too long in New Zealand to obscure the real character of our record on the roads.