Infant deaths on N.Z. roads: Is our driving really so bad?

Press, 15 November 1977, Page 21

Infant deaths on N.Z. roads: Is our driving really so bad?

Figures from the World Health Organisation that, of 10 western countries, New Zealand had more children aged one to four die on the roads for each 100,000 of population than any other during 1972 (the most recent figures) came as a shock.

Was our driving so bad? Were we more casual about child safety than anyone else? Were we doing enough — even anything — to reduce infant mortality on our roads?

To none of these questions has a simple answer

been found. Comparatively, our driving is not so bad — although in 1972 it may have been worse than anyone else’s. But this was the only year inside a decade when New Zealand’s percentage of child deaths on the roads was the highest of the 10 (see table). On the other hand, Sweden’s rate has consistently been one of the lowest — if not the lowest — so perhaps we could learn something from the Swedes. However, the Ministry of Transport has been talking to its equivalent body in Sweden, and no single factor has emerged to explain the difference, with the

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

possible exception that the Swedes are more careful about locating congregations of children near major roads. Two batches of statistics are kept in New Zealand —- Ministry of

Transport (based on the date of the accident) and Health Department (based on the date of death) — and because of the different methods of compilation, the two sets differ each year. Thus, since 1965, the M.O.T. figures (with H.D. figures in parentheses for the years in which they are available) are: 1965. 7 (9); 1966, 10 (11); 1967, 8 (12); 1965, 7 (10); 1969, 7 (9); 1970, 9 (7); 1971, 10 (10); 1972, 12 (15); 1973, 14 (11); 1974, 17 (14): 1975, 9; 1976, 10.

These statistic are for deaths per 100,000 of children aged one to four Statistics for children under the age of 12 months have only been broken out recently, and are minute. Three babies died on New Zealand roads in 1970, one in 1971, three in 1972, and one in 1973.

These figures are so low that it is assumed that the parents with babies are more careful drivers; that the babies are nearly always on the back seat and in a carrycot or some other semi-protective case; that the babies do not move about and so get into vulnerable positions; and that they are so relaxed they are less susceptible to physical damage.

It seems to be in the one to four age bracket that most fatalities occur. The World Health Organisation report, subsequently refined by the National Health Statistics Centre, showed New Zealand in a very poor light — the worst of 25 countries. However, this sumation was based

on the statistics from one year only, and the suggestion has been made that these 1972 figures may not be truly representative. In the 10 countries chosen by the National Health Statistics Centre, two groups emerge clearly on the average annual figures between 1965-71. Denmark averaged 13 per 100,000, Finland, Norway, and Australia 12, Sweden 6, Israel and EnglandWales 7, and France and Czechoslavakia 8. This left New Zealand in the middle with 10. Factors such as the number of cars, residential density, and the planning of suburbs to separate pedestrians and vehicular traffic, were important in arriving at these figures. But it does seem that Nev/ Zealand’s record figure of 15 per 100,000 in 1972 was not typical. If the 1972 figure should be maintained into 1973 and 1974 then the Traffic Research Section of the Ministry of Transport would be very worried. But it has not so far assumed a bad trend out of one year’s figures.