Road toll: How bad are tourist drivers?

Last week, a married doctor who visited New Zealand with his girlfriend and caused a crash on Boxing Day was sentenced for careless driving causing injury to four people.

On Thursday, Kansei Uno, of Japan, 54, an associate professor at the University of Tokyo Hospital, appeared before Judge Kevin Phillips in the Dunedin District Court.

Judge Phillips said there was strong public interest in Uno’s case, particularly as overseas tourists driving rental cars ‘‘with- out proper skills’’ put other motorists ‘‘at risk’’ on New Zealand roads.

When you consider that New Zealand had 3.5 million international visitors in 2016 – even if we don’t know how many drove on our roads or for how long – are the crash numbers that bad?

In total in New Zealand in 2016 there were 286 fatal crashes, 2099 serious injury crashes and 7583 minor injury crashes.

That means Kiwis were involved in 262 fatal crashes, 1985 serious injury crashes and 7077 minor injury crashes.

The population of New Zealand that year was 4.693 million.

So, there was one fatal crash for every 145,000 foreigners. And one fatal crash for every 17,900 Kiwis.

Over the five years from 2012-2016, 6.2 per cent of fatal and injury crashes involved an overseas driver. Over the same period, 4.1 per cent of all drivers involved in crashes were overseas drivers.

Regional and seasonal variation existed. For example, from 2012 to 2016, 3 per cent of crashes in Hamilton involved overseas drivers. During the same period, 40 per cent of crashes in Westland and 31 per cent of crashes in the Queenstown Lakes area involved overseas drivers.

Half of all visitor crashes occurred in the four months from December to March, and shortterm visitors had about twice as many crashes in the months January to March as the months May to July.

Peter Mckennie, Manager of Operations, Road Policing, said: ‘‘While there has been a significant increase in the number of visitors to New Zealand with tourism up, there has not been a corresponding increase in crashes or incidents on the roads involving visiting drivers.

‘‘In 2016, overseas licence holders were involved in 4.3 per cent of fatal and injury car crashes ... Most visiting drivers manage their journey through New Zealand perfectly safely and without incident.

‘‘Of those who are involved in a crash, it is most often for the same reasons that a New Zealand driver crashes.

‘‘Our advice to visiting drivers is much the same as for all drivers, including drive fresh and alert – not tired – taking regular breaks is important.

‘‘Visitors from some countries are used to driving on the opposite side of the road, so being mindful of staying left on New Zealand roads, and we have plenty of prompts on roads and in rental vehicles to remind them of that.