Labour disoriented over road safety
Candor Trust

Labours Transport Spokes-Person Darren Hughes shows incomprehension of the road safety crisis in New Zealand by criticising Nationals reduction in Police hours dedicated to an unending high risk quota chase. A point-less pursuit that Labour ramped up, propelling us into the bottom 4 road safety performers of 28 countries monitored by the International Road Traffic Accident Database in 2008.

The mass quota based approach as trialed in New Zealand under secretive transport research over the last 2 terms is an unequivocal failure. It resulted in multitude more deaths and long term injuries than are seen in more evidence based countries. Labour is well aware (due to reports tabled) that their monumental ramp up of quotas, which continued from 2002 up to the election date bore no correlation to reduced trauma - and if anything has substantially increased it, resulting in the ACC debacle.

Success is not normally measured in fatalities (reduced by safer vehicles and better medical care) but by serious crashes resulting in deaths or serious injuries, so Mr Hughes should consider the big picture of failure over the last 5 years ith unacceptable fatality and abominable injury rates, if he cares to be an honest politician.

It appears Mr Hughes is employing smoke and mirrors with the astounding claim Labour removed quotas, for undeserved political point scoring. The proof that Police hours dedicated to quota issues equate to expectations placed on Police of ticket performance measures per hour is in many current policies and Ministry documents, that all need burning if the massacre is to be halted. Victims are turned of by weasel word games.

The 50 million dollars that National has just sanely redirected from ticketing duties and advertising promotions to support the mass money missions to the more useful cause of safer highway engineering, constituted obvious wastage. If strictly based on the cost benefit ratios of quota operations to people saved. There are still too many Police hours dedicated to fruitless pursuits as a 5% redistribution is not likely to greatly reduce the wastage, but it is an excellent start.

It is not National that is taking a one dimensional approach, it has seen the reports, the great failure of the quota system to save lives, and is now commencing with rational action focussed intently on saving lives via modern infrastructure. Hughes should be outraged that more wasted road safety funds have not been redirected from wasteful Policing methods to road safety engineering.

Hughes states "“The improvement in the road toll was also down to the political will (of Labour) to invest in road policing and road safety. It sounds good and is what we'd like to hear, except for the fact that the social cost bill shows that greatly increased serious injuries make his improvement a mere fantasy. Labour must take a bow for incrῥased trauma under a rigidly revenue based regime, in which most of the transport focus was environmental not people.

"If you start losing road safety momentum, the toll will certainly increase,” according to Mr Hughes. He appears blind to the connection between increased Police quota activity and tragic loss momentum in the form of worsening road safety. Enhanced road safety and quotas have been mutually exclusive since they went into overdrive 5 years ago.

More lives are not saved by issuing 100 tickets than 50, or by arresting twice as many drink drivers when you are only arresting the same people twice, with no tangible impact on crash statistics. It's nice for the bank and for paying the burgeoning Police force - a good employment scheme in times of recesssion. But unfortunately any road safety benefits accruing from overkill in quotas is well disproven.

We refer Darren Hughes to NRSC meeting minutes of 2002 in which it is revealed that the Government approved a road safety program and strategy entirely based on quotas, and in which the Police Commissioner states that the Police Minister is perfectly happy to see a ramp up in ticketing. Quota based road safety was a mere fantasy before the high level meetings in 2002 sealed our fate.

It certainly is a complex issue Mr Hughes. Candor Trust suggests you check your facts, reports, and internal evaluations of the Road Police Resource Allocation Quota Study which long past reached saturation point in securing trauma reduction. Excessive enforcement of just a few select issues is an evil apportioning of targeted funds. It's a cold hearted killer, that makes no humane or economic sense. Victims can't sanction this terminal approach - and neither would a responsible subject savvy Transport Spokesperson.

ENDS

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