Resolution wanted on road toll

Press, 4 January 1988, Page 4

Resolution wanted on road toll

Individual pledges to give up smoking or abandon alcohol pale in the wake of a call for a New Year resolution on the road toll by the Minister of Transport, Mr Jeffries.

After the second worst annual road toll on record, Mr Jeffries has challenged every New Zealander to make some New Year resolutions to get the toll down. Last year, 793 people were killed on New Zealand roads, compared with 772 the previous year. The worst annual road toll was 843 in 1973. Mr Jeffries said there were four simple resolutions which individuals should make: To always drive within the speed limit, do not drink and drive, always wear a seat belt, and to make sure that all passengers in the car, particularly young children, are safely buckled in.

It is a legal requirement for drivers to ensure that children under 15 are restrained in either a seat belt or a child restraint. If everybody made the

commitment to keep these resolutions, it had been estimated that the number of road deaths could be cut as much as 40 per cent, said Mr Jeffries.

“There can be no more important New Year resolutions than these, New Year resolutions are often broken, but we cannot afford to break these ones.”

@ With just a day of the holidays to go, this summer’s toll has reached 21, and the toll for 1988 had reached six. Provisional figures from the Ministry of Transport recorded 793 deaths on the road last year.

The 1986-87 total for the 12-day Christmas-New Year holiday break was 31. This holiday toll period officially ends at 8 a.m. tomorrow.

Previous Christmas holiday tolls, for periods varying from 11 days, in 1979-80, to 13 days, include: 1986-87, 31; 198586, 23; 1984-85, 13; 198384, 17; 1982-83, 16; 198182, 35; 1980-81, 32; 197980, 13; 1978-79, 29.