Government’s future road safety strategy a good start

The Governments draft Road Safety Strategy, which aims to slash New Zealand’s annual road toll and serious injuries over the next 10 years was launched today by Transport Minister Steven Joyce.

Motor Trade Association (MTA), Web and Communications Manager, Ana Zandi says MTA is fully supportive and congratulates the Government on its new strategy and believes it is a good start to improving road safety outcomes for New Zealanders.

The strategy focuses on changes to increase the safety of young drivers which will see; raising the driving age, toughening the restricted licensing test, investigating vehicle power restrictions and improving road safety education for young drivers.

The most hard hitting change will see the introduction of a zero blood alcohol level for drivers under the age of 20 years and repeat drunk driver offenders.

“New Zealand’s 15-17 year olds have the highest road death rate in the OCED. Research shows that most people killed by young drivers are their own passengers. For every 100 alcohol or drug-impaired drivers killed in road crashes - 54 of their passengers and 27 sober road users die with them,” says Ms Zandi.

“It is critical to instil good driving habits and responsible behaviour during these early stages of their driving experience. MTA has long supported youth road safety initiatives particularly through the Greg Murphy “Eliminate the Risks’ schools campaign. So it's pleasing that the Minister has listened to concerns and decided to introduce these change.”

MTA particularly welcomes initiatives to increase motorcycle safety by improving motorcycle rider training and assessment tools and the introduction of power to weight restrictions for novice riders, however they are disappointed that the Government has chosen not to introduce mandatory Warrant of Fitness (WoF) test for mopeds.

“We believe there needs to be some consistency with the other defined motorcycle safety initiatives. Mopeds are travelling on the roads mixing with all other traffic. They have tyres, brakes and indicators, just like every other powered device - so why would this class of motorcycle be exempt from passing a roadworthiness inspection?”

Another initiative MTA believe the Government has overlooked is the introduction of a rolling ban for used vehicle imports to help reduce the average age of the New Zealand fleet.

“For the past three years, MTA has lobbied hard for this change. This is one of the simplest ways of increasing the overall safety level of vehicles coming into the fleet. Eliminating these older vehicles would improve vehicle safety and tackle poor fuel efficiency and environmental impacts.”

Ms Zandi adds that while MTA is pleased with the overall proposed initiatives, increased enforcement is critical to ensuring the new initiatives are successful, particularly in the area of enforcing non-compliant vehicles.

“Anecdotal evidence suggests there is a significant minority that persistently don’t get a WoF, renew or pay their vehicle annual licence. An increase in compliance of just 5 percent would equate to approximately 47 million in annual licensing fees – this could go a long way towards funding increased enforcement, driver training and other road safety initiatives.” she added.

ENDS

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