‘More ruthless' attack on road toll called for

Press, 30 December 1980, Page 4

‘More ruthless' attack on road toll called for

PA Auckland A “more ruthless” attack on the road toll, including a ban on drivers aged under 19, was called for yesterday by the chairman of the Accident Compensation Commission, Mr K. D. Sandford. Mr Sandford, whose eight years as chairman of the commission will end tomorrow, also criticised politicians for not being prepared to back unpopular, but necessary, safety steps. Their soft line, he said, had undermined the work done by the ’ Ministry of Transport and by well intentioned and well informed people. The commission, although never having adopted a front-running attitude towards road safety, had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial aid, for example, in backing defensive driving and traffic accident research.

He now suggested four “unpopular” steps combining training and penalties which, he said, would at least “put circumferences around human behaviour.” Mr Sandford said New Zealand was far too generous in its attitude to young people having a driver’s licence. The lives of scores of young New Zealanders could be saved by not issuing a licence to anybody under 19.

There must be a ruthless attitude towards “the drinkdriving scandal,” said Mr Sandford. For example, difficulties regarding evidence in obtaining successful prosecutions against guilty people should be removed.

There should be \no legal technicalities pri-whjch-guilty.

people might escape, said Mr Sandford, who was for 22 years Crown solicitor in Hamilton.

“Next, the excellent system of traffic blitzes should be extended so as to provide more concentrated enforcement by the use of task forces in areas where the risk is greater, for example, hotel car-parks,” he said.

The compounding or confiscation of vehicles for a long period should be made possible and disqualification should be more freely imposed, said. Mr Sandford Drivers disqualified sould find it harder to have a driver’s licence restored by the courts.

He believed the drink-driv-ing problem could be relieved bv a law substantially reducing the alcohol content of all New Zealand-made or New Zealand-mixed drinks. If the alcohol content was

halved, a person would have to drink twice as much to reach the same level of intoxication.

Young people on motorcycles, Tong a worry for the commission, called for a “massive approach,” said Mr Sandford. There should be first a re-examination of how young people got licences to ride motor-cycles. A young person could now ride on the street with a probationary licence but with hardly any experience of instruction, and this should stop, he said.

The deaths of young, inexperienced motor-cyclists could be reduced if it was made harder for them to get a driver’s licence and if it was made mandatory for them to attend motor-cycle training schools. Mr Sandford said the steps he outlined would certainly only reduce the problem. It

could never be eliminated in an area which was so much a result of human conduct and human behaviour. One of the main causes of death on the road, he said, was the natural instinct of young people to demonstrate their own growth into adulthood, and their vigour and spirit of adventure.