The Government has broken a promise to complete highways work targeting foreign drivers by July, leading the family of a 5-year-old Oamaru girl killed in a car crash to call the Government ''soft'' on road safety.
Chris Cant, the uncle of Ruby Marris, said he was disappointed the work had not been completed by July 1, as announced by the Associate Transport Minister Craig Foss on March 5, the day of Ruby's funeral.
Ruby was killed, and her parents and two sisters were injured, in a crash involving a foreign driver at Moeraki on February 21.
Mr Cant told the Otago Daily Times the Government was ''soft'' on road safety and without tougher, mandatory measures he feared more people would be killed this summer in accidents involving foreign drivers.
''The biggest disappointment with our family is that where Ruby's accident was, it's a high-volume tourist area.
''There's not even any arrows been put in down that part of the road, which is pretty disappointing because there's been another accident since then.''
He criticised the Government for not adopting stricter measures, such as mandatory driver testing, saying politicians were probably hoping the issue would ''blow over''.
''They say that it's not practical and it's too hard to put these measures into place to make things mandatory, but as we've said before, it's not very practical burying a 5-year-old girl, either.''
Mr Foss announced in Queenstown on March 5 that 50km of extra centreline rumble strips, 140km of no-passing markings and 200km of highways marked with ''keep left'' arrows would be completed by July 1.
The announcement followed nationwide publicity on the issue, including several incidents in which ordinary New Zealanders stopped rental vehicles and took keys from foreign drivers.
Last week, the New Zealand Transport Agency confirmed the extra highways work was incomplete.
Only 6km of rumble strips had been installed and 112km of no-passing lines painted. While 750km of Otago roads now had extra tourist direction arrows, work was yet to start in Southland. The agency could not confirm how much had been done by July 1.
Mr Foss declined to be interviewed, but said in an emailed statement severe winter weather was not conducive to installing safety measures.
The work was now expected to be completed by December.
''These safety measures were originally programmed to take two to three years to complete. It's actually going to take less than one year,'' Mr Foss said.
''We now have more protective safety measures on our southern highways than ever before.''
Labour transport spokesman Phil Twyford said the minister's explanation was underwhelming.
''It's simply not good enough for Craig Foss to make promises, with great fanfare, to make the roads safer, and then to not deliver.
''It's disappointing that the minister was quick to front up to the TV cameras with a big promise but fails to front when asked to explain his broken promise.''
Between 2010 and 2014, a quarter of crashes in the Queenstown Lakes district involved foreign drivers, Ministry of Transport statistics show. In Southland, the rate was 24%. The national average over that period was 5.7%.
