Genter has road toll at top of list

As the road toll tracks towards a seven-year high, Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter is calling a crisis meeting to see how the number of deaths can be curbed before the holidays hit.

A spate of road deaths during the weekend has taken the toll for the year-to-date to 330, the same as the toll for the whole of last year with still 42 days to go.

Genter has called representatives from the police, NZ Transport Agency and Ministry of Transport to Wellington today to figure out what changes will have the biggest impact in a short amount of time.

Genter said the meeting would be a ‘‘stocktake’’ of the situation, and how the Government could help improve road safety.

The long-term plan involved taking more people out of private cars by improving rail and public transport, more rail and ship freight to reduce the number of trucks on the roads, changing speed restrictions, improving identified dangerous intersections, and continuing to raise awareness around speed and driving under the influence of drugs/alcohol.

But Genter also wanted to find solutions in the short-term to curb the road toll and to make the roads safer before the holiday season arrived. This year’s road toll was ‘‘tragic’’, she said.

‘‘Every death on our roads is a tragedy and the high number this year is quite simply unacceptable.’’ The road toll had been going up over the past four years and was now the highest since 2010.

‘‘My number one priority in the transport portfolio is to bring the road toll down,’’ Genter said. ‘‘In recent years expensive roading projects have been the priority and road safety has taken a back seat.’’

She was referring to projects like the proposed east-west motorway link in Auckland, which would have cost about $2 billion. The new Government has said it will be putting this project on ice while it explores other transport options.

‘‘This Government will be exploring all options to improve road safety including reallocating funding to target high risk roads.’’

That meant a new approach, where central government helped local government fund important road safety improvements.

Genter said the Auckland Council could not afford to fund road safety improvements as well as big infrastructure upgrades, like the central rail link.

Central government gathered revenue from petrol tax and road user chargers, while local government had to rely on rates.

That was not a sustainable funding model, she said, adding that Auckland had 500 intersections that had been identified as dangerous; only six were undergoing work.

‘‘Every life lost leaves behind a devastated family and community. We have to do better,’’ Genter said.