The Otago Regional Council has put its hand up in support of new road safety programme "any number is too many" aimed at reducing deaths on the road.
ORC councillor and Otago regional transport committee chairman Trevor Kempton said the ORC was one of a group of councils that had joined the Southern Road Safety Influencing Group (SRSIG) along with Southern emergency services to develop the road safety programme "any number is too many".
It was intended to ask communities to think and talk about road risk.
A longtime motorcycle rider, Cr Kempton said every road death or serious injury had a major long-lasting impact on Otago communities.
"We know from recent research that people in the South are a little more resigned to road deaths than in other regions."
"We think crashes are caused by poor drivers and we think they are prevented by improving the roads.
"Improving the roads won’t stop poor decision-making. It will only make the landing a little softer."
He said it was time to have "honest conversations" about what we could do to stop the rising road toll in our community.
The council was reviewing its approach to driving processes and road safety.It was working with other members of SRSIG to bring awareness to the campaign.
There will be bumper stickers on the regional council’s vehicle fleet, campaign tape with the "any number is too high" message and short collaborative videos posted on social media and online.
"We have to talk to each other about how to make sure we come home safe from our summer trips," Cr Kempton said.
He had ridden motorcycles for 45 years and statistically was "one of an endangered species".
"We know who take the biggest risks."
This summer he challenged people to be "the mate who said something".
The "inclusive approach" to addressing road risk recognised local people knew their roads and could help develop possible solutions to the increasing road toll.
"We might have an idea of what an acceptable number of deaths on our roads is ...
"Is it still acceptable? The only real answer is zero."
Established in 2016, SRSIG aimed to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on Southland and Otago roads.
The group is made up of regional and local authorities from Southland and Otago, representatives from government agencies and partners representing the transport sector.
