Queenstown, Central Otago and Southland are busy again.
Rental cars fill the roads.
Drivers hesitate where locals wouldn’t.
Anyone who spends time on these roads knows the feeling — that split second when you realise you are a metre or so away from serious injury or death on the other side of the white centre line.
Our roads are not easy.
They’re narrow, winding and exposed.
Many leave no room for error.
Driving on the left is instinctive for locals.
For someone arriving from overseas, it isn’t.
Add fatigue, unfamiliar vehicles and the pressure to get moving straight away and mistakes become far more likely.
We have seen where that leads.
A few years ago, a visiting doctor from Japan arrived in New Zealand after a long international journey.
He picked up a rental car and was driving within hours.
Somewhere on a rural South Island road, tiredness and habit took over.
He crossed the centre line.
People were killed.
It was not recklessness.
It was exhaustion, unfamiliar roads and left-right confusion — the exact combination we continue to allow.
Closer to home, a serious crash involving a Queenstown resident occurred only recently.
She was driving on a familiar local road, in her own lane, when another vehicle crossed the centre line — a driver unfamiliar with our roads who drifted into oncoming traffic.
There was no time to react.
People have been badly injured in incidents like this, many requiring a long recovery.
The physical toll is significant, as is the shock and mental trauma that inevitably follows a crash.
In seconds, an ordinary day becomes life-altering.
These are not freak incidents.
They follow a pattern.
Fatigue. Long-haul travel.
Unfamiliar roads. Left-hand driving. Heavy rental vehicles. Minimal checks.
Yet we continue to treat the hand-over of rental cars as a transaction, not a safety responsibility.
Every summer, thousands of visitors arrive after travelling 30 hour to 36 hours or so.
They collect their bags, walk to a rental counter, sign a form and are handed the keys to SUVs, vans and campervans.
Within minutes, they are on open roads.
No practical assessment.
No confirmation they are fit to drive.
No requirement to rest.
Just the keys and a polite warning to take care.
That should not be acceptable.
Rental car companies are not bystanders in this.
They are the gatekeepers.
They decide who drives, what they drive and when they drive.
Yet the system assumes that holding an overseas licence automatically means someone is ready to drive safely on New Zealand roads.
It doesn’t.
Cars are everyday tools, but they can be lethal in the wrong circumstances.
In that sense, they are no different from firearms: their danger lies not in their existence, but in how easily they are handed to people without adequate checks.
We accept strict controls and responsibility in other areas where lives are at risk.
Driving should be treated with the same seriousness.
If someone has been travelling for 30 hours to 36 hours or so, they should not be allowed to drive immediately.
A mandatory rest period should be standard.
Not encouraged.
Required.
The same goes for basic driving assessments.
Not a test to catch people out, but a short, practical check before keys are handed over.
Lane position.
Turning.
Roundabouts.
Awareness of centre lines and road markings.
Proof the driver understands the basics before being released on to rural and alpine roads.
We would not send someone straight on to a skifield without instruction.
We accept that unfamiliar environments carry risk.
Driving should be no different.
This is not about blaming visitors.
Most are doing their best in unfamiliar circumstances.
The responsibility sits with the system that puts them — and everyone else — in harm’s way.
Tourism matters, it supports jobs and regional economies, but safety cannot be treated as an afterthought.
Doing nothing is not neutral.
It is a choice.
And it is one we should stop making.
• Hamish Walker is a former National MP and director/salesman of Walker & Co Realty, Queenstown.
