Poor roading biggest risk
Motorists caught creeping a few kilometres over the speed limit can expect to be hit in the back pocket this summer.
Heavy holiday traffic traditionally heralds a renewed police focus on speed but one road safety campaigner said building safer roads – not ticketing ‘‘ordinary drivers’’ – should be the Government’s priority.
And New Zealand Transport Agency data shows lifting speed limits on two stretches of state highway hasn’t led to an increase in crash rates.
The speed limit along a stretch of the Cambridge section of the Waikato Expressway and the Tauranga Eastern Link Toll Road was increased to 110kmh in December last year.
Provisional data obtained under the Official Information Act show there was one serious injury and one minor injury on the 110kmh stretch of the Cambridge section between December 2017 and August 2018.
That compares to one serious injury and two minor injuries during the corresponding period a year earlier.
There were two minor injuries along the 110kmh section of the Tauranga Eastern Link Toll Road in the nine months after the new speed limit was introduced, compared to one minor injury during the same period a year earlier.
NZTA say conclusions can’t be drawn from the crash statistics, citing the short period of time that’s elapsed and the small sections of road in question.
But road safety campaigner Clive Matthew-Wilson said higher speed limits on these two roads is clearly appropriate given it hasn’t significantly affected road safety.
‘‘There’s nothing magical about these roads. They’re basically ordinary highways with fences to stop cars leaving the road and median barriers to stop vehicles colliding head-on,’’ Matthew-Wilson said.
The best way to reduce the road toll is to upgrade roads and target unsafe drivers, he said.
‘‘As a matter of fact, about 85 per cent of the road toll occurs below, not above, the speed limit. Almost all these high speed accidents are caused by yobbos, blotto drivers or outlaw motorcyclists.
‘‘The police have issued millions of speeding tickets to ordinary drivers who’ve drifted a
few Ks over the speed limit. Yet the road toll goes up, not down. Clearly the police need to refocus their enforcement on to the high risk groups.’’
Matthew-Wilson said the Government’s priority should be to accelerate the process of upgrading the country’s roads.
Waikato road policing manager Inspector Marcus Lynam said police officers didn’t enforce a speed threshold – the extra speed allowed above the indicated limit.
However, speed camera tolerance is set nationally.
‘‘Staff still have that discretion and enforcement is a really important part of deterrence and encouraging safe driver behaviour,’’ Lynam said.
‘‘I can confidently say if you’re detected by a speed camera exceeding more than 4 kilometres over the speed limit, you’re highly likely to be ticketed.’’
There is no one simple answer to road safety and speed is one factor that contributes to crashes.
‘‘The particular thing about speed is that even when speed doesn’t cause the crash, it is still the single biggest determinant of whether anyone is killed, injured, or walks away unharmed.’’
Automobile Association road safety spokesman Dylan Thomsen said the organisation supports the police’s approach to road safety and its focus on speed during the summer holiday period.
The holiday period is a highrisk time on the roads due to the increased number of people driving long distances, he said.
However, the AA favours having more police officers on the roads, saying research shows it is the best way to get people to slow down.
Thomsen said the AA also favours the upgrading of more state highways.
‘‘We need to have more roads like the Waikato Expressway, roads for higher-speed travel which have median barriers, barriers on the side, and clear spaces so if you run off the road there isn’t a tree or power pole or ditches right beside the shoulder.’’
In November, the Waikato Regional Transport Committee wrote to the Government asking it to reduce rural speed limits for rural roads to 80 or 90kmh as a way of reducing the region’s road toll.
The request applies to nonstate highways and will be considered as part of the new national road safety strategy.