Obeying road rules will help cut shocking toll

A very sad front page article in yesterday’s edition of

The authorities are looking for ways by which the road toll for 2018, already far too high, looks to be heading for another disastrous record.

Fixing the roads; changing the speed limit; bringing in new regulations and restrictions; increasing transport levies. All of these changes will achieve nothing.

What is desperately required is obeying the rules and the road signs!

Speeding, failing to stop, not giving way, inability to even see the signs which are there, and very clear, using cellphones.

Enforcing the law – no ifs, no buts, no exceptions – this is the only way forward, as ‘‘being nice to people’’ is not going to work.

Add to this the New Zealand fixation with great big SUVs, and the “I’m bigger than you so I’ll drive like a bully.”

All of the above are set to produce another bad year on the roads.

Phones and driving don’t mix

The use of death statistics for the road toll is not a very accurate measure of road safety.

A relatively small number of people die, the vast majority of people affected by accidents are badly injured.

What the editorial of April 3 does not underline is the absence of traffic police. Everyone driving has seen people on their phones, surely traffic officers see them too.

This practice would disappear overnight if there was 100 per cent certainty of being caught.

The same applies with virtually all crime, but most crimes don’t put people in hospital or in a casket.

Several years ago it was reported that on average 26 people a year were dying due to cell phone use in cars and usage has now been reported to have increased.

How many millions are spent on road improvements to save one life, when a self-funded policy of cracking down on phone use would save many more lives and perhaps 10 times that in injuries?