Twelve steps to safety

A prominent road safety campaigner has outlined a twelve-step a plan to halve the road toll in five years.

Clive Matthew-Wilson, editor of the car review website dogandlemon.com, says:

“It’s pretty obvious from the recent road toll that enforcement and persuasion are a fairly poor way of saving lives. We need to move beyond the policies that don’t work, and move towards policies that do.”

Matthew-Wilson says there are a number of key steps that would dramatically lower the road toll.

“It is universally agreed that the main reasons for the declining road toll in recent years are safer roads, safer cars and better medical care for the injured. But, as the holiday road toll has shown, there is still much to be done.”

“Some drivers make a lot of mistakes; some drivers make only a few. Blame is easy, but blame doesn’t save lives. The government has to accept that every driver, at some stage, makes errors of judgment when driving. Whether these mistakes turn into tragedies depends largely on the safety of the roads and the vehicles that use them.”

“Many New Zealand roads are like a staircase without a handrail: you make a mistake, you’re probably going to get hurt.”

“We also need to make it harder for bad drivers to get behind the wheel of a car.”

Matthew-Wilson believes the road toll could be halved in five years if his twelve-step plan was put into action.

1. Installing median barriers between the opposing lanes of traffic on all major arterial routes. This strategy has been proven to prevent head-on collisions. However, it’s also important that median barriers are motorbike-friendly.

2. Improving roadside fencing
Many accidents occur where the vehicle leaves the road. Although it’s not possible to fence all roads, roadside protective fencing is a proven way of preventing deaths and injuries and should therefore be a high priority. However, it’s also important that roadside fences are motorbike-friendly.

3. Installing rumble strips at the edges of road lanes
Rumble strips, which warn drivers when they are drifting out of their lane, are a proven road safety measure that costs comparatively little. Where possible, roadside gravel should be removed at the same time, because it’s common for drivers to lose control after drifting into the gravel at the edge of the road, often with fatal consequences.

4. Making interest-free loans available for people on very low incomes to do safety-related repairs on their cars.

Many poor people postpone vital maintenance such as replacing worn tyres, because they have a choice between paying the rent and fixing the car. If poor people can get safety-related work done immediately, they are less likely to have accidents. These interest-free loans are not a handout; the money would have to be repaid in small amounts each week.

5. Make driver’s license training part of the secondary education curriculum.

Many poor people have very inadequate driver training and some have no licence at all. It’s in everybody’s interest that all drivers are both legal and skilled. Teenagers are generally very keen on getting their licences, so it makes sense to train them while they’re still at school, even though they may not be able to legally drive immediately.

6. Make reversing cameras compulsory on all vehicles. Evidence suggests reversing cameras are the most effective way of eliminating the blind spots that often lead to driveway tragedies.

Reversing cameras should be compulsory on all cars, with subsidies for those on low incomes. The Government could bulk-buy the cameras and then onsell them to ordinary motorists at a reduced cost. For parents, reversing camera installation could be arranged at the same time as baby car seats are installed.

7. Reduce the number of heavy trucks to a minimum.
Trucks make up about 2.5% of the vehicle fleet but cause 17% of all road deaths. Even though trucking accidents have dropped in recent years and truck drivers themselves are unlikely to be the cause of accidents, trucks are still a major hazard.

While we can’t do without essential services such as stock and milk trucks, we can do without many long-haul freight trucks on routes already covered by railway, such as Auckland to Wellington.

The Government’s own studies show that transporting goods by sea freight and rail is far more efficient than transporting goods by truck.

“While truck drivers are generally very skilled and courteous to other motorists, the current system effectively pits cars and trucks against each other. Often the truck driver is not at fault, but when a car and a truck collide, size wins.”

8. Allow the police to seize cellphones used illegally while driving.
Matthew-Wilson believes the police should have the power to permanently seize cellphones being used by drivers while a vehicle is in motion.

“What cars and cellphones have in common is that they give their owner freedom. Take away that freedom and you give drivers a powerful incentive to modify their behaviour.”

9. Require all vehicles to operate with daytime running lights.
World Health Organisation statistics show that vehicles using daytime running lights have a crash rate 10-15% lower than those that do not.

The evidence that vehicles are safer with their lights on is overwhelming. The European Commission has ruled that all new cars operating in the EU must have daytime running lights.

10. Ban overseas tourists from driving vehicles for 24 hours after they arrive.
“Driving tired is as dangerous as driving drunk. Rental car firms would not be allowed to rent a car to a drunk driver, but are allowed to rent a car to a traveller who’s liable to fall asleep and kill someone. This is just wrong.”

11. Require all drivers – including New Zealanders – to pass a simple, computer-based competency test before being allowed to rent vehicles.
Such a test would not contravene international drivers’ licence agreements as it is not putting the driver’s existing licence under scrutiny, but the driver’s ability to handle a vehicle in New Zealand driving conditions, and at the point at which they hire the vehicle.

There is anecdotal evidence from some Asian countries that it is possible to buy or obtain a driver’s licence with very minimal or no driving skills. Some of these people are potentially driving on New Zealand roads, sometimes with disastrous consequences.

12. Require all rental vehicles to be fitted with Electronic Stability Control.
Many rental vehicles have been imported second hand and are therefore older vehicles, lacking basic safety protections such as side airbags and electronic stability control (ESC). Given that ESC can reduce the chances of a fatal collision by 55%, the Government needs to look seriously at measures to control the age of the rental vehicle fleet and ensure that all vehicles have appropriate safety features.

Release ends.

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