Crash figures contradict touristdriver ‘myth’

AUCKLAND: Tourist drivers are not to blame for New Zealand’s horror road toll after lockdown, according to Ministry of Transport fatal crash figures.

Since lockdown, the number of tourist drivers on New Zealand roads has dropped to near zero, but there has been little change in the road toll.

Nine fatal crashes for April — the country was in lockdown until April 27 — was well down on previous years, but as soon as drivers got behind the wheel under Level 3, the number of fatal crashes went back to near the level of previous years.

Ministry of Transport figures show the number of fatal crashes in May was not as bad as in the past three years, but the same as in 2016.

June had the same number of fatal crashes as it had in 2017 and 2018, which were the worst in the past five years, and July is shaping up to be worse than in all previous years, apart from 2017.

Five people died last weekend and many more were injured.

A police spokeswoman said visiting drivers made up only a very small proportion of serious crashes on New Zealand roads, and crashed on our roads for the same reasons as local drivers.

The factors involved in these fatal and seriousinjury crashes remained the same — failure to properly wear restraints, driving at excess speed, driving while tired or under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or driving distracted such as while using a cellphone.

She said there was 75% less traffic during lockdown but people still died on our roads.

Tourist Industry Association chief executive Chris Roberts said it was a total myth that visiting drivers were to blame for the high road toll.

He said since 2013, just 6% of serious and fatal road crashes in New Zealand had involved a driver with an overseas licence.

‘‘The industry and Government agencies have taken our joint responsibility to keep visiting drivers safe on our roads very seriously.

‘‘It is all too easy to blame others. We should examine our own driving behaviours and the conditions of our roading network,’’ Mr Roberts said.

Before Covid19, there were 3.9 million overseas arrivals in New Zealand in the year to April 2019, of which two million were tourists.

There have been many horrific crashes in New Zealand involving foreigners.

In March last year, four tourists travelling to one of the mosques involved in the Christchurch shooting died on State Highway 1 at Kaikoura.

In February this year, a Singaporean tourist who was driving on the wrong side of the road when he caused a crash that killed a Queenstown woman was ordered to pay almost $30,000 in reparation.

The Ministry of Transport’s crash data in 2017 showed of the 378 road deaths, 34 people died in 25 crashes that involved a foreign driver.

The foreign driver was at fault in 18 of those.

Only five of those were deemed to have happened because the driver failed to adjust to New Zealand roads.

Overall, across New Zealand, foreign drivers were involved in under 4% of crashes in 2017. — The New Zealand Herald