most truck drivers are good at driving half these tourists have no skills at driving nz roads
philltauranga,
Aug 3, 4:25pm
Cool, I hope it can be developed to the point it is suitable for testing people as I mentioned earlier in this thread.
s_nz,
Aug 3, 5:53pm
Introducing any form of testing will require us pulling out of international conventions (such as the 1949 Geneva Convention on Road Traffic), which allow's NZ licence holders to drive in most of the world.
That said, we could introduce testing for countries that are not signatures (Bermuda, China etc.)
berg,
Nov 20, 1:13am
Driving as a whole has gone down hill. How many kiwis fail to put any effort into driving correctly? Watch the indication (or lack thereof) at roundabouts and merge points to see how much the modem average kiwi cares about driving
msigg,
Nov 20, 1:18am
Your right there berg, too many cars on roads now too, 30 years ago I could drive Auckland to Napier faster than I can now, You can never get those days back, this is the sign of a growing country.
db.price,
Nov 20, 1:29am
So OP you assume that the Asian woman was a tourist and the person in the rental was from overseas?
Take a look at the number of deaths caused by tourist drivers on our road this year, it is a fraction of the road toll. NZers are perfectly good at killing themselves and others on our roads.
berg,
Nov 20, 1:49am
In the towing game we used to know this time of year as the "wreck a rental season". Nothing has really changed, just the volume of tourists has increased. Plus the proliferation of cellphones means more driving complaints are registered. Police are doing as much as the can with their limited resources to remove these drivers from the road when they can and are getting good buy in from the rental companies. Just hard to police such a huge area with limited staff numbers
bill-robinson,
Nov 20, 2:19am
remember, the next time you go o/seas, to hire your own local driver to show you the sights. pay him more than the minmum wage as well
bill-robinson,
Nov 20, 2:20am
you are correct berg, nz drivers would be the worst in the world on average and poor policing of driving habits does not help
stockyz,
Nov 20, 3:00am
some truck drivers should take a long hard look at themselves as well. Why is it that almost every truck i see on the road,the driver is talking on their ph? or are truckies exempt from the no talking on ph rule? We have far too many large trucks on our roads
bill-robinson,
Nov 20, 3:06am
take the large trucks off the road and put 4 times as many small trucks on the road, or use the railway as intended. you choose
philltauranga,
Nov 20, 3:24am
As far as Im concerned any truck driver who is fined for talking on the phone, the police should hand the fine straight to the boss or the owner of the truck for being a cheap cu#t and failing to provide their workers with a hands free kit in the truck and then phoning the driver every half an hour and expecting them to break the law and talk to them. We need to get with the times, it should be a legal requirement, any commerical vehicle needs to be fitted with a hands free kit, its not fair on employees not having one in the trucks, its not like you can just pull over any old place in a large heavy truck, suitable places are few and far between. There are a few other fines a driver is liable for that should be handed straight to the boss aswell.
skygone1,
Nov 20, 3:28am
Oh you are looking at the statistics quoted by the self claimed road transport experts . Consider there may be at anyone time be 1 or 2 % of the drivers on the road are tourists having 6% of the accidents. There is a significant chance that if you are a tourist you will have an accident.l
socram,
Nov 20, 3:46am
Funny how so many Kiwis can't see that logic!
Even on Britain's roads 50 years ago, it was standard practice to see if the person holding up the traffic was a hat wearing pipe smoker.
In summer, we were often stuck in horrendous traffic jams at 2am heading for Cornwall, usually behind caravans. At least those days of having to negotiate the Exeter by-pass are long gone.
It's a fact of life that if it is a single lane road, sooner or later, you are going to get held up.
Worst example locally a few years was two people, heading back from the Hauraki Plains area. Female learner driver on a motorbike hogging the centre of the road, with her male partner riding behind her - and a 1km queue of traffic.
You can partially understand those driving camper vans, as they will believe they'll fall over if they go round a corner at more than 15kph, but bring in a law so that rental camper vans with overseas drivers (or even all camper vans and caravans, horse floats etc?) have to pull over for a compulsory stop every 15 minutes to let any accumulated traffic past!
Totally unenforceable of course, but rental companies could make a far better effort to educate hirers.
By the way, what percentage of NZ fatals involve stolen cars and/or people with criminal records?
gazzat22,
Nov 20, 4:36am
I have for a long time thought one reason is to have more Traffic police on the roads and it was (to me anyway proven last week) On one of my infrequent trips on the motorway the traffic started behaving and slowing,Oh i thought an accident but it was simply a Cop had pulled up a ute for some reason and was writing a ticket.The effect of a Marked police car on the side of the road was remarkable.I know it may slow traffic down but if the chances of getting caught doing something stupid or dangerous was increased it just might help I would rather drive 1000 miles on the M1 in England than 10 miles on the southern motorway.I,m sure some on here will vehemently disagree but if you do give us your better idea(s).
elect70,
Nov 20, 9:48am
Cindy is going to have an inquiry into the high road toll , expect more draconian speed resrtictions as plod will just say its all because they are doing over 104 KMH
philltauranga,
Nov 20, 10:53am
10 driving simulators lined up at the airport, just after the baggage claim.
Oh. I see you have a international drivers licence. come with me please, we have a test for you to do before we validate that here in NZ.
I have always found that people who make comments like this, are themselves the worst drivers in NZ.
gunhand,
Nov 20, 12:13pm
Everyone suddenly knows all the rules and speed limit when they see a marked car, its almost an automatic reflex to check ones speed when you see one as well. Perhaps every late model commodore owner should be offered free rego and insurance if they have their car marked up in Police colours, geez ya wouldn't know who was who until the lights came on. I bet the bad behavior on the roads would half lol. Not sure how many friends you would have though.
db.price,
Nov 20, 12:20pm
The stats they quote make no difference. Tourists killed on our roads or those that kill others on our roads would be less than 15 a year - possibly less. The road toll so far this year is up to 373 so that would be around 4% of the overall deaths on the road.
So as I sated previously - NZers are perfectly fine at killing each other on the roads - tourists have little to do with it. The argument around testing tourists before allowing then to drive is a strawman.
db.price,
Nov 20, 12:22pm
Except you don't need a International Drivers Permit to drive in NZ - so yeah, nah.
Just like I can go to the States, Europe, UK, and many countries in Asia and hire a car with my NZ DL
bill-robinson,
Nov 20, 12:59pm
I lived abroad for 25 years and only had a kiwi license. sorry had an international when I left, showed to a cop in the uk 2.5 years later and he advised me to bin it if I was working. had to leave the uk every year to keep my nz license valid but that was only a 2 hour trip on the hovercraft for ukp1 and 2 bottles of duty free rum and ask for a clear stamp in my passport.
philltauranga,
Nov 20, 1:00pm
Nitpicking the irrelevant part of the post, I would like to think most people understood I was implying anyone, tourist or immigrant with a licence that is valid to use here, should need to undergo some type of basic skill test upon arrival. I dissagree with the strawman argument, I think its a valid request to ask of people who we share our unique roads with. If I went overseas and had to do a simulator test upon arrival, I would make damn sure I was well clued up on all the rules and regulations through fear of not being able to get my licence validated. Which is the point of my idea with the simulators, an outright ban as has been suggested is a bit OTT but we should atleast make sure strangers with no known driving history have some type of basic skill test in my opinion.
tweake,
Nov 20, 2:30pm
some rental places are doing that, but it needs to be mandatory.
we had one that wrote off a campervan within 5 mins of leaving auckland airport.
there also needs to be more education. many think that they can drive like they do at home. they are not use to our crap highways. they think they can land here and drive to there accommodation. not knowing its 5+ hours of twisty crap roads.
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