Media Release Candor Trust
 
Toll steadily tracking up.
 
Candor Trust is appalled by the imbalance in yet another Dominion Post article - a thinly veiled PR firm sponsored exercise in abnegating Government responsibility or countless traumatic deaths. Talk about serial killers.
 
The Dominion Post misreported in it’s "Highway to hell" article that the road toll has been "tracking down". Since 2002 there has been no statistically significant reduction in fatalities, and serious crashes and injuries have shot up.
 
The Post trumpeted the allegedly record toll in 2006 as a sign of hope, but Candor have acquired Ministry documents concerning "rounding of figures," which sow scepticism regarding the accuracy of reported tolls that year.
 
The 2006 toll "blip" mostly explained by gas prices and reduced vehicle kms
has allowed the medium term fatality trend to appear static (statistically insignificant reduction of 10/year instead of showing a steady 5 year increase.
 
Mr Duynhoven commented that he would be out of his job and that the Government would fall if a 737 crashed every three months causing the same harm as the toll. Few would dispute that the abyssmal performance of his Department can not be seen as meeting any duty of care.
 
Fortunately for his target shy staff, the duty of care imposed elsewhere was removed from the job description of his Land Transport New Zealand CEO - no doubt in anticipation this could be prudent given the now realised risk of New Zealands highly experimental road safety program.
 
The acting Road Policing Manager defended the restricted range of efforts of police in focussing on speed and drink-driver deterrence, saying that their core work appears from the research to be "having an effect".
 
But her Greenhorn comments may just indicate she has swallowed the non independent evaluations of policy impacts carried out by the very scientists involved in setting up the Police ticket quota regime - also known as the "Supplementary Road Safety Package".
 
And then published by these self assessors in prestigious academic journals; of which they’re even board members. One such example of published junk science; Monitoring performance of road safety programmes in NZ. Guria, Mara. Accident Analysis & Prevention.
 
Ms Rose and colleagues would be better advised to critically read the more reliable independent reports for M.O.T. by Breen, Duignan and also the 2004 thesis of Stephen Irvine - Evaluating the Supplementary Road Safety Package - Models that count. Otago University.
 
The contents offer mountains of incontrovertible evidence that the main thrusts of Police activity are sadly doing zippo to reduce the road toll (as of several years ago) - and instead act powerfully to mesmerise and distract us from the real issues. Most notably fatigue and drugs.
 
The contents of the aforementioned papers - well known to Government 3 years ago - caused Candor to issue a statement published in the New Zealand Herald on Boxing Day 2006 warning of the inevitable current toll tailspin.
 
Ms Rose says ridiculously, given other Countries success, that there is no silver bullet but she is always on the lookout for initiatives that could work. She would be wasting her time though, because the expiry date for the current experimental Road Safety Program, is some time betwixt 2010-2015.
 
This is why Mr Duynhoven won’t change the law to send a clear signal to cellphone users - among many other acts of negligence by omission. New Zealand has been allocated the Mini of road safety programs and not the Porsche with bells and whistles.
 
The Supplemental Road Safety Program is also Harry’s master, and does not include quotas for cell phone use. Ms Rose needs to bypass Harry and dial Mr Bliss at the World Banks Transport division where he migrated from LTNZ, after setting up the model she labours under.
 
Kanohi ki te kanohi (face to face) she could plead for mercy. A call in time could save nine 111 calls at least - and thousands of lives in future. Or should tough Kiwis just continue to "handle it"; our world leading slaughter of babes. Because the agenda is set, regardless of the research findings.
 
We warned them
 
Road toll forecasts 'unacceptable'
NZ Herald  Wednesday December 27, 2006

Police estimates that 10 more people will die and 120 will be injured on the roads before the new year are unacceptable, the Candor Trust road safety organisation says.

The estimates reflect a failed government road safety policy, Rachael Ford, spokeswoman for Candor (the Campaign against Drugs on Roads), said yesterday.

"Our crash rate, serious injuries and hospitalisations have steadily trended upwards if you take a close look - parallel to the closure of drug rehabilitation centres," she said.

Ends
 
 
 
 
 

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