Staying safe should be a priority
Horizons Regional Council is once again supporting road safety week, an annual event held throughout communities across New Zealand. This year, the theme for the week is “road safety heroes”.
Horizons road safety coordinator Debbie Webster wants everyone to become a road safety hero.
“We can all do our bit to get involved and help improve road safety. It should be a priority for us all and we should stop accepting that people will die or be seriously injured in a crash,” says Ms Webster.
There’s a certain level of complacency among us when it comes to road safety. More than 50 per cent of New Zealanders believe some deaths on our roads are acceptable, however the people killed or seriously injured are somebody’s family, friends or loved ones. The impact of their loss is devastating.
Everyone can be a road safety hero, from the people who design the roads, to those who enforce the road rules, to those educating the public on safe road use. There should be no apologies for putting the safety of people first.
In 2020, 318 people were killed and almost 2500 seriously injured on New Zealand roads. On average, one person is killed, and several people
are seriously injured in crashes on our roads every day.
Each death and serious injury has a devastating and wide-reaching impact
on our communities.
The social cost to New Zealand of $84 million per week or nearly $4.7 billion a year includes the cost on
individuals, the health system, disruption on the road network, and the devastation that deaths and serious injuries have on communities.