Road safety group slams 100kmh outside school
A national road safety group is slamming a Waikato Council for its inaction on a 100kmh road near a rural Waikato school, saying that kind of speed outside any school is ‘‘far too fast’’.
On Monday Stuff reported that for more than nine years Ngutunui Enviro School had been battling with O¯ torohanga District Council to reduce the speed from 100kmh to 60kmh on Ngutunui Rd, near the school.
After a close call where a parent and her daughter almost lost their lives, council made improvements on the road, but the 100kmh limit wasn’t reduced.
Now Brake New Zealand director Caroline Perry is calling on councils and the Government to do more.
The national charity that works to prevent road deaths and provide support to families wants to see a ‘‘blanket speed reduction’’ of 60kmh near all rural schools and a widespread
30kmh speed limit near urban schools.
‘‘From a safety perspective,
100kmh outside a school is far too fast,’’ Perry said.
‘‘Sadly Ngutunui Enviro School’s case is something that happens too frequently, and we really need more things be put in place particularly for our rural schools.’’
In 2018, 828 children under the age of 15 and 1,893 young people aged 15-19 were killed or injured on New Zealand roads.
The Government has set a goal to have lower speed limits outside at least 40 per cent of schools in the next three years and for most to be down to 30kmh over the next decade.
The safer improvements around schools is part of a broader programme to tackle unsafe speeds across the country.
The initiative includes a new ‘no surprises’ approach to safety cameras that will introduce warning signs so drivers know to go slow; the transfer of safety camera responsibility from police to NZTA; more cameras on highrisk roads and streamlining the processes for determining the appropriate speed limits for regions.
For some, however, this initiative isn’t fast enough, Perry said.
She said a number of rural schools had contacted the organisation recently with similar concerns to Ngutunui Enviro School.
Often those schools had been waiting between four or five years to see change, she said.
‘‘We are seeing more traction in our urban communities with variable speed limits near the schools at start and end times, but our rural schools don’t have those same measures in place yet the students there are just as important.’’
‘‘The difference between 100kmh and 60kmh is a big difference in the amount of time it takes for you to stop if there’s an unexpected hazard in front of you.
‘‘If you’re involved in a crash at that speed as a pedestrian the chances of survival are incredibly slim.’’
While some people wouldn’t slow down, Perry argues the majority of people are ‘‘lawabiding citizens’’ particularly near schools.
‘‘Most people abide by the law, there will be some who don’t, but most will see the 60kmh sign and slow down.
As well as a comprehensive speed limit enforcement, the charity wants to see Intelligent Speed Assistance fitted in all new vehicles.
This technology prevents a vehicle breaking the speed limit, unless the driver purposefully over-rides the system.