Reform Police Chase Culture - Inquiry Time
Candor Trust

Candor Trust say "Enough is enough" after 9 recent Police chase deaths. A pursuit in central Christchurch last night of a jam packed car seems ill advised. The boy racer laws were predictable going to result in an exacerbation of trauma - as Candor submitted to the select committee.

For politicians brownie points in passing populist laws with revenue reward points, a 26-year-old man has been killed and five people injured in last nights chase. Certainly they will register as a blip and soon be yesterdays news as the spin boys and girls at Police HQ go into overdrive, but if road police are to claw back any of their credibility the unsafe operational framework needs addressing.

This can only occur if the Royal Commission of Inquiry that has been requested of Steven Joyce (legally responsible for Polices safety performance) by the Akilla Foundation, as supported by a large part of the road safety work force, is finally granted. So far the response has been - not interested!

In 1990 NZ had a toll of 729, only 30% higher per capita than in the best Countries, but now its toll is 100% higher per 100,000 capita than theirs, NZ ranks in the top 3 of the OECD lands for child road deaths and is in the bottom 3 for serious crashes %ile changes – one of few with a worsening trend (IRTAD country reports 2009).

Auckland Regional Road Safety Plan 2009/2012 refers to the matter that between 2000 – 2007 New Zealand’s Percentage Reduction in Road Deaths was the seventh worst out of 27 countries. An international comparison of deaths per 100,000 population in 2007 showed New Zealand only ranked 20th out of 30 countries. No wonder the Lonely Planet Guide gives tourists fair warning of the perils

New Zealand is number 1 for road deaths with 9 per 1000 mill vehicle km’s travelled (IRTAD 2008). Among OECD member countries in 2007, New Zealand had the highest recorded ‘road deaths’ per 100,000 population’ risk among 15 to 17 year olds, the second highest ‘road death per 100,000 population’ risk among 0-14 year olds, and the fourth highest OECD ‘death per 100,000 population’ risk among the 18-20 year olds.

New Zealand, however, tied for worst with Greece and Poland for road fatalities of zero- to 14-year-olds per capita in 2008. We had the second-worst, just after Slovenia for 15- to 17 year-olds. Alcohol is not major contributant in this group at below 15%, but highest cannabis use/driving rates, and out of bounds numbers of Police chases since the RAM experiment was fully instituted in 2003 ill impact on youth odds.

Having a state insurer has enabled experimentation by the State to occur with far less scrutiny than if private providers were copping the bill. The State run accident insurer has faced financial crisis die to crash injuries skyrocketing, with major costs now being passed on in hikes on levies imposed on motorists.

The Motor Vehicle Account represents the greatest component of NZs state Accident Insurance liabilities and the 2009 ACC Motor Vehicle Account Liabilities which stand at $6,845,000,000 (up from 1.7B in 2002) will have increased 600% in under a decade to $12,475,000,000 by 2011 (Source data: ACC Annual Reports).

Once the 2010 plan was largely in place, with it's triple set of revenue raising experiments (which necesitated massive rises in Police cruising and chases), from 2005, there occurred an immediate rise in serious injuries, as is acknowledged in MoT’s “road safety progress since 2000”.

After years of agitating, and Police ignoring Justice Goddards report which partly came from that, the Candor Trust's desperate staff is resorting to publishing a book (for release soon) that illustrates the nuts and bolts of NZ's road toll problem... the pea trail leads directly and irrevocably to Police selling out on safety.

A Royal Commission of Inquiry to the cause of crashes in New Zealand must be comprehensive, and closely delve into the Police road safety trials known as the RAM. It must fearlessly examine the road police resource allocation set of experiments, which Police are contracted to slyly perform by their M.O.U. with the NRSC. And which are fundamentally behind last nights death, and the rest of the excess blood letting here.

ENDS

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