Asian drivers

Having previously gritted my teeth at the Timaru Herald’s persistent endeavours to rally the populace against the menace of Asian drivers, your lead-article headline on Tuesday ‘‘Asian tourist drivers prompt complaints’’ deserves opprobrium.

The following article is largely a collection of quotes and opinions, rather than well-researched, substantiated facts that might inform readers of whether such a menace actually exists (other than anecdotally, from three people your reporter elected to contact).

Was it a slow news day perchance? Nowhere in the ensuing article does anyone assert they’ve either complained, or been complained to, regarding Asian drivers.

Messrs Barnett and Wills aren’t reported as having complained to anyone.

Constable Swanson doesn’t mention Asian drivers at all – he talks about overseas drivers. Indeed, he seems to have been at pains to point out that ethnicity does not appear to have much bearing on driving behaviour.

Sean Roberts – to his credit persistently demonstrating a maturity beyond his years – has similarly cast his petition’s net over all overseas drivers (and he, if anyone, could actually be forgiven for having a poke at the driving of some of our Asian visitors). So, who has made all these complaints about Asian drivers?

If there haven’t actually been any, then shame on the Timaru Herald – lead-story headlines such as this, unsubstantiated by the content of the article, risk Timaru once again being perceived as a bastion of racial intolerance, as it once was in the 1980s. This district deserves better representation from its main newspaper. WAYNE VAN VUUREN Timaru Footnote: People do not need to complain to an official body to make a news story. Our aim is not to ‘‘rally the populace against the menace of Asian drivers’’ but to highlight concern about various observations. It is difficult to get up-to-date official statistics of road accidents by ethnicity. – Editor.