Rising road toll a problem for all of us

As long as the wildcard of human frailties comes into play our roads will never be truly safe.

Maybe with the advent of driverless cars, where machines take the wheel and all possible glitches are ironed out by a processor far more reliable than the human brain, we’ll see the end of road fatalities.

It’s working in air travel; statistically it’s never been safer to fly since human error is being rapidly removed from the mix by increasingly sophisticated and dependable technology.

But the rise of the machines is still some way off so we have to contend with people, and all of their vagaries, in charge of vehicles.

Police talk in terms of the fatal five – five factors which when present contribute to the likelihood of a fatal or serious injury accident.

Alcohol and drugged driving, speed, lack of restraints, dangerous and careless driving, and high risk drivers.

Defensive driving is about all we have as a shield against that, other than the police doing everything in their power to mitigate those factors. They do an exceptional job but as hard as they try they will never completely stem the tide.

But with the unacceptable number of serious crashes on State Highway 60, seven deaths, 12 serious-injury crashes and 45 minor-injury crashes on the stretch of road from Three Brothers Corner at Richmond to Motueka since 2015, it would suggest there is a constant that we all can do something about.

Tasman mayor Richard Kempthorne and Nelson MPNick Smith have both recently called for action on this nightmare corridor.

Kempthorne has called on members of the public to make submissions and share their views on how to make it safer and Smith has called on police, NZTA and councils to start coming up with solutions.

Few among us are experienced traffic engineers but anyone who has ever driven this stretch of road will have crystallised their thoughts on what is wrong with it. Poor visibility, inadequately controlled intersections feeding into a busy 100kmh stretch, ambiguous blending lanes, inappropriate speed limits, take your pick.

Of course it’s difficult to quantify the part these factors play against inattention or lack of familiarity with these roads, but it’s well worth removing them from the equation all together.

There is no time to sit on our hands on this one and we all have the opportunity to have a say and play our part.

The shockwave from a bad accident resonates far and wide. There’s no telling when any one of us is going to get caught in its radius. Whatever the financial cost of addressing the problem it’s puny next to the human cost.

The roads in the Tasman region are only going to get busier. Let’s all do our bit to stop the road toll rising in tandem.