Iain
LEES-GALLOWAY
Transport Safety Spokesperson
29 August 2012 MEDIA STATEMENT
Road safety should be a priority
National is determined to put more lives at risk as it again proves that it doesn’t take road safety seriously says
Labour’s Transport Safety spokesperson Iain Lees-Galloway.
“Funding for road safety promotion has been slashed by 11% in the National Land Transport Programme 2012-15. And what is
more, road policing has also been cut while funding for other activities that will improve road safety has not kept pace
with inflation.
“But it gets even worse. At the same time Government is happily pushing more freight on to the roads while doing nothing
to encourage the use of rail, which is proven to be much safer than road travel.
“Sadly it is clear that National is prepared to put drivers’ lives at risk in order to pump more and more money into its
blinkered Roads of National Significance policy.
“Today’s announcement comes hard on the heels of National’s failure to act on the legal blood alcohol level, hiding data
about the prevalence of drug-driving from the Cabinet and refusing to do anything about the disproportionate number of
accidents involving trucks.
“As we see so often from National, Minister Simon Bridges can only see the savings of short term spending cuts, not the
long term damage he is doing by making our roads unsafe,” says Iain Lees-Galloway.
ENDS