Yet another fatal head-on crash involving a foreign driver yesterday, with a Chinese man charged with dangerous driving causing death: SH1 north of Moeraki in North Otago Sunday afternoon, rental Ford Ranger with 4 Chinese aboard heading south hit northbound Holden Cruze containing an Oamaru family. One little girl killed, 2 other children and parents in Dunedin Hospital with serious injuries. A tragedy for that family whose lives are changed forever. The Chinese ended up in Oamaru Hospital so I suspect not seriously injured and the driver was to appear in court in Dunedin today. From memory that stretch of highway is of good quality and fairly straight. I understand that driving licences in some far-east countries are very easily obtained (ie for money) and their residents can drive in NZ with no understanding of our road conditions or laws. So, how to avoid being the victim? Constant vigilance, with an eye on every other vehicle on the road? Constantly being ready to take evading action? In a blind corner being able to stop in the length of clear road ahead? Let's hear about some action from the traffic authorities to prevent incapable drivers being let loose on our roads.
drove past the scene. no idea how you screw up where it happened. Had to have been on the phone, or turned around talking to passengers or something.
robotnik,
Feb 23, 4:53pm
Very tragic.
From looking at footage of the crash here, it looks like the late model Cruze Sportwagon with its 5 star ANCAP crash rating has held up pretty well against the much larger pickup truck. The passenger compartment safety cell has remained intact, largely protecting the occupants. The results could have been a lot worse in an older vehicle that might not have held up as well.
I live in this area and I've been chugging around in a 90s Mazda for no particular reason other than I wanted to save wear on my good car, but not any more I think.
We should start making special rental cars - made out of paper mache.
attitudedesignz,
Feb 23, 5:21pm
Nope.
A BIG spike right in the centre of the steering wheel instead of an airbag would be far better.
tamarillo,
Feb 23, 5:43pm
Fact. Chinese guy told me some of the young Chinese here on study have never driven at home and don't have license but get bad fake which no one can read anyway. He had to show one how to use car they'd bought. Not saying all like this, but seems our checking system might be loose. Why not require they provide a certified translation from an approved local service? This isn't racist, everyone with non English license would have to provide one. I accompanied a young Korean girl to post office when she bought a car off me, she handed Po lady a paper in Korean as her license. Poor women had no way of knowing.
attitudedesignz,
Feb 23, 5:48pm
How would a bit of paper/plastic 'prove' they "know" how to drive?
petal_91,
Feb 23, 6:07pm
The moment you get a bit outside big places like Beijing the roads get all pothole ridden, so you end up pottering around at 60km/h on the open road in China. So even people with proper licenses aren't much used to high speed open road driving.
richardmayes,
Feb 23, 6:34pm
Don't we already do this? (Nissan Tiida / Hyundai Accent etc)
richardmayes,
Feb 23, 7:16pm
The trouble with ethnic profiling is that it ignores the fact that cars are driven by individuals not by the entire race.
Which means that if it is to be effective in keeping useless drivers off the roads, the net probably needs to be robust enough that it will inconvenience a lot of other people as well, who might be perfectly good for all we know.
Perhaps we could introduce a test at the border, whereby inbound tourists have to prove their knowledge of local rules and their general competence is similar to a New Zealand driver? (HA! )
quickbuck,
Feb 23, 7:43pm
Very good points.
Actually, with Technology getting cheaper, and the cost of cleaning up an accident getting more expensive, maybe rental car companies should actually have a Driving Simulator for non NZ Licence holders. Then they could be assessed by a qualified person before they can rent a car. I guess the expensive bit in the equation is the "Qualified Person".
Just a thought.
lissa25,
Feb 23, 7:52pm
A qualified program would be cheaper, with console and gaming technology it would be a relatively inexpensive exercise to have a mandatory test with car controls and a screen running in most languages, rental companies could offer the service in house, no pass = no car.
tamarillo,
Feb 23, 8:07pm
It would show they have gone through a lesson system and passed a test which is all we can ask for surely? Ultimately still able to fake but so is money! Used to be a requirement for an international driving license to drive overseas, remember getting them from AA. some kind of internationally recognised system. What happened to that, maybe that's what we need.
Nothing fixes idiots, but we should at least try to ensure we only let idiots who actually have licenses.
tamarillo,
Feb 23, 8:09pm
Pipe dream. We rely on tourism for income, can't expect people to come all the way and plan a trip and not know if their going to be allowed to drive, would you?
jmma,
Feb 23, 8:10pm
The insurance companies may put some restrictions on rentals soon, maybe?
tamarillo,
Feb 23, 8:11pm
poppycock, China has massive network of new motorways all over the show.
lissa25,
Feb 23, 8:13pm
Of course not, but to me it shows that tourists coming in could be more important than only letting tourists who can drive have cars, since the cost to implement a testing system wouldn't need to be high.
dublo,
Feb 24, 6:28am
And it's not only Asian drivers: another fatality yesterday when a German apparently drove through a stop sign on a rural junction near Christchurch and killed a local lady. Same thing happened late last year with another European driver.
petal_91,
Feb 24, 6:42am
A couple of years ago I drove extensively in the North East of China, from Beijing to Heihe on the Russian border, and the roads get pretty crappy an hour or two out of Beijing. The government has put on a show of spending on infrastructure near the capital, but a lot of the rest of the country has rubbish roads and you're dodging pot holes and broken up, poorly maintained tarmac a lot the time.
calista,
Feb 25, 2:52pm
Sounds like Christchurch without the cones.
skin1235,
Feb 25, 2:59pm
so why could such a test not be done between the booking time and departure, in the origin country, a pass would be an assurance they know the rules here, a non pass would mean they have a little time to wise up and take the test again, a non pass at arrival here means you ain't driving diddly while you're here sunshine
skin1235,
Feb 25, 3:02pm
but to be fair the govt would expect our internal standard of driving to be much higher before asking tourists to be of a very high standard, our homegrown standard is abysmal you want a purity from tourists that our own people cannot achieve
scuba,
Feb 25, 3:47pm
bollacks- majority of Kiwis are competent drivers , there will always be a small percentage who do dumb things due to tiredness , drugs, alcohol , indifference.
snoopy221,
Feb 25, 3:52pm
Yeah there has been WAY TOO MANY crashes involving tourists on the wrong side of the road recently Hopefully they all just happened at once and no more for a few years.
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