Strategy aims at big drop in road deaths

Press, 11 December 1989, Page 6

Strategy aims at big drop in road deaths

IMMEDIATE licence suspension for seriously drunken drivers, speed limiters for certain types of vehicles and seat belts in buses, trucks, and taxis are contemplated in a new report on road safety. The report was released at the week-end by the Minister of Transport, Mr Jeffries, and is the basis of a road-safety strategy for the next 10 years. The report suggests New Zealand should aim for the safest roads of any of the highly motorised countries. This would mean bringing New Zealand’s present road-death rate down from 21.1 deaths per 100,000 people and 3.6 deaths per 10,000 vehicles to Sweden’s 10 deaths per 100,000 people and 2.5 deaths per 10,000 vehicles. In the meantime, the report

Wellington reporter

suggests setting a target reduction for per capita deaths, of onequarter and per vehicle deaths of one-sixth before the year 2000. This would equate to 17.5 deaths per 100,000 people and 2.7 deaths per 10,000 vehicles. Achieving the reductions would move New Zealand from the personal safety of Greece to that of Hungary and from the traffic safety of Australia to that of the United States. Tables in the report show New Zealand’s personal safety record on the roads is particularly poor, with only three of 33 selected countries experiencing more deaths per 100,000 people.

But our traffic safety — deaths per vehicle — is among the better, reflecting the degree of motorisation of New Zealand society.

For example, the worst traffic safety record in the tables was Ethiopia, with 168.5 deaths per 10,000 vehicles. But its personal safety record was good — only 2.5 road deaths per 100,000 people. Mr Jeffries did not explicity endorse the report’s suggested targets but said objectives would need to be systematically set. The report estimated the annual cost of road accidents at about $1 billion, with present trends making an annual road toll of more than 900 deaths and 38,000 reported injuries likely by the turn of the century.

Last year there were 728 deaths and 17,294 injuries reported. To match the best safety in the world, there would need to be only 500 deaths, on the road in 1990. The study also found New Zealand’s traffic safety record had slipped from well ahead of Australia’s to slightly behind as Australian efforts to improve road safety started to work. Changing community attitudes and better co-ordination of central and local government agencies would be important in improving road safety. So too would attention to resource use and the targetting of problem drivers. Better planned roads and greater use of vehicle and traf-fic-management technology were also ways of improving road safety, the report said.