Death rate plummets

Manawatu¯’s top traffic cop is warning against complacency, despite the road toll in the region dropping by nearly half in a year.

Data provided to Horizons Regional Council’s regional transport committee shows there have been 19 road deaths this year as of November 13.

There were 36 during that same time period last year.

Horizons transport manager Phillip Hindrup said the drop was encouraging after the fatality rate spiked in 2017 and last year.

The main reason for the drop was a reduction in driver and passenger deaths, going from 15 to 10 and 13 to three, respectively.

Fatalities for those aged older than 60 and younger than 15 also dramatically decreased.

Males by far outnumbered females in fatal crashes though, with 17 victims compared with two.

Hindrup said the male-tofemale ratio, which was common across the country, had prompted Horizons to come up with a malefocused vehicle safety campaign for the Christmas-new Year season.

There was no data on serious injury crashes, with Hindrup saying that was harder to get information on.

Central District road policing manager Inspector David White said the figures come on the back of a bad year on the roads last year.

There were 62 deaths across the central policing district, which includes Taranaki, when the road toll was usually 40, he said.

That meant this year’s figures were back to the average, rather than a big improvement.

There were improvements in isolated areas, though.

The highways between taki and north of Levin, which have been subject to much debate about the need for a new road, had multiple fatalities last year, White said.

But there had only been one fatality this year.

Police had upped patrols significantly, but the increased number of vehicles on the roads had also helped in a way. ‘‘The traffic volume has slowed things down.’’

The only big negative when comparing this year and last year’s crash figures was the number of cyclist deaths, going from zero to two.

This concerned committee members, including chairwoman and regular cyclist Rachel Keedwell.

Tararua mayor Tracey Collis said it would be great to get injury data about cyclist crashes too, because a rise in deaths did not tell the full story.

Horowhenua-based member Sam Ferguson noted there had been complaints about how little room there was for cyclists during roadworks on major roads.

NZ Transport Agency highways manager Mark Owen said managing space around roadworks was a challenge, because there had to be enough space for contractors to work safely. But that was not an excuse for cutting down room for cyclists, as roads should be as safe as possible for all users, he said.