How many people should be killed and hurt on New Zealand roads this year?
That may sound like a ridiculous question, a heartless question, but please consider it for a moment. Would 300 deaths be about right for a nation of our size?
Maybe 250?
What is the lowest number you think we could realistically achieve?
I ask this because someone recently put the question to me: "Why do we accept road deaths?"
When you first hear a statement like this, your immediate response is denial. If you were pressed you might say something like "there will always be idiots on the road who end up hurting themselves or, even worse, others, but that does not mean we 'accept' road deaths".
We are so used to seeing twisted heaps of metal in the news that the equation that roads + cars = deaths is ingrained in us with a sense of grim inevitability.
We have to end that thinking.
We have it in our power right now to dramatically reduce the number of people killed and hurt on our roads and this is what the UN's Decade of Action for Road Safety is about. Left unchecked, road crashes will soon be the fifth-biggest killer of people on the planet and the Decade of Action has been launched to counter this epidemic. Today marks the end of the decade's first year in New Zealand and, while there is a lot to celebrate about our recent progress, the key change that we have to achieve for it to be successful is in the hearts and minds of the driving public.
Consider for a moment that in 1979, 257 people died in the Mt Erebus disaster. It remains New Zealand's worst disaster. There was a mass outpouring of grief and outrage leading ultimately to a Royal Commission of Inquiry to find out what caused the tragedy and prevent something like it happening again.
In 2011, 284 people died on our roads. That is 27 more than the Mt Erebus disaster, but was the lowest road toll since 1952. Alongside that there were thousands of people seriously injured, yet there is no public outcry. There is certainly grief for the thousands of people who lose a partner, child, parent or friend each year, but most people just accept this as an unpleasant fact of life. It isn't.
There are many proven ways we can make our roads safer, if we take the action needed to do so.
Individually, we all have the ability to reduce our risks of being in a crash with the choices we make behind the wheel every day. Do you use your cellphone when you are driving?
Do you keep a two-second following distance?
Do you know the safety rating of your car?
Do you ever drive when you are tired?
Do you stick to the speed limit?
Do you drive after drinking or taking drugs?
These seemingly small decisions, multiplied by millions of drivers daily, make a huge difference to our road toll.
No matter how good a driver is, though, people will make mistakes sometimes, and this is why improving the safety of the roads we drive on is just as important. The AA is calling for $150 million more to be spent each year on making physical changes to our roads like installing more median barriers, removing roadside hazards like power poles and ditches and improving road markings. It has been estimated that if we did this for 10 years, by the end of that period we would be saving 80-90 lives on our roads each year.
We have two outstanding examples of what can be achieved from recent improvements made to Centennial Highway north of Wellington and the Rangiriri section of the Waikato Expressway. Both of these roads had seen numerous deaths but since median barriers were installed there has not been a single fatality.
While most drivers will never be involved in a fatal or serious injury crash, we all are affected. The crashes on our roads were estimated to cost the country $3.54 billion in 2010. Putting aside the emotional and financial costs to the affected families, they suck up police and emergency services time, fill our hospitals, and add to ACC and welfare costs. To what other uses could that money be put?
How much better could our society be if that bill was halved?
In comparison to the savings, the AA's call for road safety investment is small indeed.
We now have nine years left in our decade of action and the first step to enduring change is for all of us to recognise that deaths and injuries on our roads are not inevitable. We need to stop accepting these and demand that, as a country, we make the necessary investment to make a dramatic difference and, as individuals, we make the personal choices that will make our roads safer.
• Mike Noon is AA motoring affairs general manager.
