The focus on speed alone is clearly not working. The focus needs to be on inattention, and on the worst 5% of drivers who cause the most accidents, recidivist drink drivers etc. We need to retest all drivers periodically to make sure they can actually drive, becuse a few clearly cant
intrade,
May 28, 8:12pm
i fully agree with you and the driver test should be as tuff as in europe where you need to reverse up hills and paralell park on a hill in reverse, or walk, haha no i dont think that would be a bit to much but that was what i had to do on my driving test and i passed it, the instructor said i drive slight to slow back then as there was a note on the steering that the odometer was 5kph reading higher then actuarl speed so i was mostly doing 45 in town , but phooh they let me pass and get my license back then.
timmo1,
May 28, 8:21pm
I agree. The focus has been on 'dumbing down' drivers (i.e. an overly simplistic 'slow down' message) as opposed to up-skilling drivers through better training and testing. Even with great advances in our cars active and passive safety, the skill level of our drivers has been reducing I feel (partly in response to the belief that the car itself will save a driver from poor driving).
What irks me is that adverts generally focus on what NOT to do rather than taking the opportunity to educate via simple targeted messages (i.e. when and how to check tyre tread, how to indicate properly through a round about etc)
esprit,
May 28, 8:25pm
To be fair, it jumped up from a record low, after the high fuel prices a couple of years ago gave us an amazingly clean year of below 300 road deaths. The general trend is still lower overall.
You're right though in that the police focus on the wrong things. Sure we need to police excessive speed and drink driving, but we need to improve the skills of the lower quartile of drivers. We also need to make sure that disqualified and unlicensed drivers stay off the roads, by locking them up in jail if they choose to drive, not just slapping them with another fine they'll never pay.
intrade,
May 28, 8:32pm
To be fair, it jumped up from a record low, after the high fuel prices a couple of years ago gave us an amazingly clean year of below 300 road deaths. The general trend is still lower overall. you said it right there. where most who cant drive actuarly not driving due to hugh fuel costs because that what it tells me with logic thinking to lower the road toll that year.
speed does not kill , people whom lack basic driving skills can kill.
sifty,
May 28, 8:42pm
But. But. They are criminalising those who drive at 102 kph, or drink 2 stubbies at a BBQ, as well as having heaps of ads on th' telly.
Heaven forbid they actually target some of the atrocious driving we see out there.
tintop,
May 28, 9:16pm
You are right - after all else has failed - it is the sudden stop at the end that kills.
mm12345,
May 28, 9:24pm
Yep - that'll fix the plague of death and maiming on highways.
budgel,
May 28, 9:35pm
While I agree that the police are over zealous in prosecuting minor speed infringements, there is no getting away from the big difference in survivability once the collision speed gets much over 100Kph.
Surgeons have repeatedly pointed out that in a modern car most accidents are survivable up to about 100Kph, but survivability declines rapidly once that speed is exceeded. Remember, the impact energy increases at the square of any increase in speed.
Upskilling drivers to safely drive up to our current speed limits is where the publicity and safety education budget should be spent.
Somebody who exceeds the speed limit downhill by a few Kph, for example, is not an inherently unsafe driver.
It is time the authorities recognised that!
mrfxit,
May 28, 11:18pm
Yep, same for passing lanes.
kazbanz,
May 29, 12:36am
Forget speeding my policeman.Move your Focus instead on licences. Impound cars driven by "learner" licence holders not actually LEARNING to drive. better still remove the word licence from the learner "licence" and change it to learner permit. if you can't take a driving test then you should not be driving on the road except in a student capacity.
therafter1,
May 29, 12:39am
LTNZ have just tried to rectify that 15 plus year anomaly, but they tried to be too PC and never went far enough with the change!
bashfulbro,
May 29, 1:37am
Obviously, the Politicians and police didn`t think recidivist drink drivers and the ones 4 or 5 times over the limit,were the real problem, the real problem drivers were the ones that just have a couple of drinks, but now, they will be caught with the lowered limit , as will those damned dangerous killers that drive 4 kph over the speed limits. So, our roads will be much safer.
singing1,
May 29, 1:44am
Surely the number of road deaths in N.Z. must be compared to other countries, how many deaths per what ever you want to compare it to. ie, road deaths per capita, vehicles per capita, miles traveled per capita and all sorts of other things that create the numbers that say "oh we are suddenly killing heaps more people on our roads" I don't accept that. What happened a couple of years ago to change things? Did we not spend more money on gas and have less money in our pocket? Did that mean NZ drivers, as a whole, traveled less km's? So therefore less cars on the road at the same time etc etc. What difference is a stricter test going to make? How about teaching our children how to drive well, showing some pride in how we drive and how courteous we are when others want/need to use when they want to pass or move out from that side road etc. we only need to teach our kids well and within a generation road deaths will become less frequent.
tamarillo,
May 29, 3:03am
Send the link to your local mp and ask them to read it and comment as to why we continue to follow a practice that isn't working. The arguement about general trends doesn't wash as the toll is reducing more in most other places. We are still very high. Get active, ask your mp.
elect70,
May 29, 3:43am
As nearly all the deaths were on open roads it shows lack of driver skill & inattention , what they get away with in50 k areas wont wash on open road .
spike4x4,
May 29, 3:52am
You're all miles out. How many of these accidents involved Stoned drivers? as they are everywhere & it's only going to get worse until there is an instant roadside test available.
gmphil,
May 29, 4:28am
the police department need take back over licence issues . has gone down hill since other agency have bein able to issue licences .
tweake,
May 29, 6:04am
there is a whole range of issues.
talking of up skilling, it actually has been taking place. license testing is a lot harder than it used to be. basically improve the new drivers let the old ones learn from experience or die off. unfortunately the idiots let people sit on learners. now they have put a limit on it suddenly there is a big increase in people getting their restricted/full. one of the problems is that if they make things to hard, its puts people off. especially the poor or nervous drivers. they simply don't bother with a license but because they have to drive to live, they simply drive without a license.
the other thing is roading, a lot of roads are crap. they simply have not kept pace with the road usage. remember the road expert they had over who said "even if everyone drove perfectly legal you would still have about half the road toll". the rest is simply that everyone make mistakes and the roads are not forgiving. a lot of it is down to road design.
bashfulbro,
May 29, 10:07pm
Agreed, that is the crux of the matter IMO, the focus is on income gathering rather than making certain,drivers are fit and ready to be safe on our roads. Someone failing, because she had a bit of dog hair on the seat, or a fail for touching a kerb while parallel parking , demonstrates the poor level of competence, of the testers we have.
craigs_workshop,
May 30, 11:02pm
but you dont need to know how to drive
all you need to know is : going slow is safe
driver license testing now is all about law obedience
craigs_workshop,
May 30, 11:03pm
most of the guys i grew up with were 4 wheel drifting well before they knew enough about the road code to actually pass the test
peja,
May 31, 11:14pm
Further to this, yesterday I drove Auckland to Tauranga and back. On the way down, had to pass someone on the left on the motorway doing 90-95 in the fast lane. Driver was texting or on facebook on his phone, completely oblivious to all around him. My passenger saw another woman doing the same thing as we passed her. I also had to slam on the brakes for people who turned in front of us, once at the Coromandel turnoff roundabout, and again at another location I cant quite recall. One was texting, one was elderly and not only didnt see us but also didnt see the truck coming the other way who also had to slam on his brakes and take evasive action. On the way home had to again slow up sharply for somebody in a ute who pulled out from a bar/pub and weaved all over the road for over a dozen km's before turning right and driving off down the wrong side of the road he turned off into.
And the only police i saw were enforcing the limit on the passing lanes. Its a wonder the road toll isnt far higher
tweake,
Aug 18, 6:28pm
much the same, followed a ute towing a trailer which must have been a learner driver because they kept hogging the center line which put the trailer over the center line. then i suspect a tourist (late model car) who was hogging the center and wandering across onto the wrong side. plenty of tailgater's and idiots hooning, risking everything just to be one car ahead. but also plenty of good drivers who took it easy who got there at the same time as the idiots with half the hassle and used less fuel.
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