61% of Kiwis worried about overseas drivers, but police unperturbed

AUCKLAND: Motorists are more concerned about overseas drivers than New Zealand drivers, even though nonKiwis are only responsible for 7% of crashes, a survey finds.

Canstar Blue’s results also show that nearly half — 45% — would be happy to see penalties increased for people at fault in a crash, while 35% believed refresher driving courses would be a good idea.

The results stem from a survey of 546 New Zealanders who hired a car in the past 12 months.

It comes as the country faces another road toll similar to last year’s blowout of 379, a marked increase from 2013’s record low of 253 deaths.

But the AA says it won’t be advocating for any of the ideas just yet, stating road safety was a complex issue and increasing penalties and introducing refresher courses would have little benefit.

Emma Quantrill of Canstar, a customer satisfaction research and ratings business, said New Zealand had one of highest rates of road deaths in the OECD.

‘‘For many, the current maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment and/or a maximum fine of $20,000 is simply not enough.’’

Sixtysix people have already died this year, compared to 63 at the same time last year.

Canstar quizzed Kiwis about whether regular minimum standards testing for drivers should be implemented, with 32% agreeing.

However, more than three in five — or 61% — thought overseas drivers were illprepared for New Zealand’s conditions, up from 54% last year.

However, AA road safety spokesman Dylan Thomsen said the AA’s Research Foundation had shown there was an even split between the main causes of fatal crashes — recklessness and people simply making mistakes.

‘‘Half involved drivers doing what we call reckless or extreme acts, so that’s your drinkdriving or drugs, driving at really high speeds, and the other 50% tended to be everyday ordinary people going about their business and having made a mistake, having missed seeing something.

‘‘That’s why we don’t think that just penalties are going to solve everything.’’

Increasing the penalties for bad driving simply didn’t add up, he said.

‘‘If you think about somebody crossing the centre line — if you do that it could result in you or other people losing their life, so people’s lives are on the line.

‘‘Then you think that if they knew they could get fined more or lose their licence that they would take more care?’’

As for overseas drivers, Mr Thomsen said bringing in licensing had been looked at and ruled out given the millions of people who flocked to our shores every year.

He said there had been big changes in educating tourists and now, from their time on the plane to picking up their rental cars, they were reminded about road safety.

‘‘The small percentage who end up in a crash . . . they generally crash for the same reasons New Zealand drivers do.’’

However, the country’s roads still needed work, Mr Thomsen said.

Currently there were still too many — 40% — of the country’s highways categorised as a two stars out of a fivestar rating.

Barriers, including wire, concrete or Armco, were all found to help prevent headon crashes.

Although hated by motorcyclists, wireroping was also more costeffective — about a quarter of the price of the other types of barrier.

New Zealand still had an olderthanaverage fleet of cars compared to other countries around the world — an average of 14 years compared to 10 in Australia.

Inspector Peter McKennie, manager Operations, Road Policing said police needed ‘‘everyone’s help to keep our roads safe’’.

There were four main behaviours which contributed to death and serious injury on the roads. They were speeding, driving while impaired — alcohol, drugs or fatigue, driving while distracted — texting, and not being properly restrained.

As for visiting drivers, while there had been a significant increase in the number of visitors to New Zealand, with tourism booming, there had not been a corresponding increase in crashes or incidents involving tourist drivers. — NZME