Rural roads are not racetracks
Hoon, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is a term used Down Under to refer to a ‘lout or hooligan who drives in a dangerous or reckless manner with activities including speeding, burnouts, and doughnuts.’ Hoon is probably the word that crosses your mind when awoken by the sound of roaring engines and squealing tyres in the middle of the night and when greeted by a road graffitied with black skid marks and pieces of tyre in the morning. And the education of hoons is what springs to mind with regard to this year’s Road Safety Week (RSW) slogan ‘Rural Roads Are NOT Racetracks’.
Safety on rural roads and driver education is a priority in the Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) manifesto.
“As well as country lanes being used as racetracks, RWNZ is concerned that speed limits on rural roads are often unsafe, especially when combined with poor signage and road quality,” says
RWNZ National President Gill Naylor. “Many rural roads in NZ have a speed limit of 100km/h but on a winding narrow or gravel road this speed is unrealistic and drivers need to drive to the conditions. Drivers also need to remember with whom they may be sharing the road, and on rural roads, this could be a child riding a horse or a bike, or a family on an outing.”
According to the World Health Organisation road crashes are the biggest killer of young people worldwide and over a third of these involve driving too fast for the conditions. Around 72% of fatal crashes occur on ‘open roads’ – those with a speed limit greater than 80km/h, without footpaths and cycleways.
This year the United Nations Road Safety Week (17th-23rd May) is focussing on speed.
Speed plays a part in every death and injury on our roads, whilst it might not have caused the crash, it can determine the outcome. The formula is simple: the higher the speed, the longer the stopping distance, the harder the crash and the greater the risk of death or injury.
If a child was to step out on to the road the average distance travelled by a vehicle going 100km/h before the driver brakes is 42m; the distance required for the vehicle to come to a stop once the brake has been fully applied is 56m; that is 98m in total; in wet conditions this increases to 122m.
Caroline Perry director of Brake NZ, organisers of RSW 2021 says, “When drivers use roads without care for others the consequences can be tragic and horrific – people killed or badly injured and lives ruined forever. At Brake, we witness the suffering that results, through our work supporting people affected by road death.”
This RSW Brake and RWNZ are asking drivers, especially hoons, to #SlowDown for someone. Whether it’s your family, friends, community, or yourself, reduce your speed and help make our roads safer.
Brake’s national survey www.surveymonkey.com/r/safestreetsnz2021 will be used to improve road safety.