Posties’ buggy crashes rise
NZ Post’s “Paxster” delivery buggies crashed 249 times during 2018, with the electric golf carts hitting vehicles, banging into fences or road signs and injuring posties.
Postal workers were injured 80 times while operating the Norwegian four-wheel vehicle — more than double the 36 injuries reported in 2017.
But NZ Post says the severity of the injuries were much less than those sustained on bicycles, based on its declining injury costs, and the increase in crashes was due to more Paxsters being in use.
Figures received under the Official Information Act show that of the total 156 injuries since mid-2016, only two were considered serious and needed professional medical treatment.
The drivers were injured when the Paxsters collided with other motor vehicles.
Other injuries included whiplash, banging heads on top of the Paxster or hurting knees when ramming the front panel after being jolted from behind. Posties also got bitten by dogs, complained of general discomfort from operating the vehicles or were hurt after slipping or tripping as they got in and out of them.
An NZ Post spokesperson said the increase in crashes coincided with the rise in the number of Paxsters on the streets. However, 58 per cent crashed in 2018 compared with 23 per cent the previous year.
“With an excess of 400 Paxsters currently in operation, this represents approximately 800,000-plus exposure hours annually across New Zealand,” the spokesperson said.
Of the 249 crashes in 2018, 129 occurred when buggies collided with objects or equipment. This included reversing into power poles, fences, letter boxes, scraping hanging branches and driving into boulders, wheelie bins and other obstacles as they veered on to driveways, footpaths and grass verges.
The remaining 94 were due to a Paxster hitting or being hit by a vehicle.
Only one member of the public has been injured since 2016, when a Paxster reversed into and knocked over a person, who was treated in hospital for a fracture.
Postal Workers Union of Aotearoa spokesman John Maynard said members’ biggest concerns were hitting a child scootering or riding on a driveway, or colliding with a reversing car.
“If you are on a bicycle, you can get out of the way much quicker. If you are on one of these things, it’s a bit more difficult to get out of the way.”
Maynard said Paxsters could only be driven on the roads in Norway, which would reduce the number of hazards faced.
Living Streets Aotearoa president Andy Smith said it had always objected to Paxsters operating on the footpath, and the lack of flashing lights or bells to warn they were coming.
“Rolling out vehicles on the footpath is not a good idea.”
Paxsters have an exemption from the New Zealand Transport Agency — section 2.13(1) of the Land Transport (Road User) Rule 2004 — allowing their use on footpaths.
NZ Post previously revealed it had invested $15 million on a national rollout of the golf cart-style delivery vehicles that can reach speeds of up to 45km/h.