Dramatic change needed in driver attitudes to lower road toll

John Bain is correct when he states that “every bit of freight that leaves here goes down that road (State Highway One from Whangarei to Marsden Point) and it is important that we maintain it.”

That is the major difference between the crash statistics in New Zealand compared to the low rates in Norway, where almost everything goes on rail.

Trucks were noticeable by their absence on Norwegian roads, road construction that poses far greater challenges than here in New Zealand.

Even in Europe there is restricted truck times and areas. Drivers in Norway are very careful and polite, they respect other drivers and do not take risks as many New Zealand drivers do.

Motorists on European motorways drive in certain lanes, leaving one always as a passing lane.

It would not make one iota of difference as to how many lanes one creates, crazy drivers will still take risks here in New Zealand.

Plus tourists are not familiar with driving on the left. One only has to look at the motorways in our cities and near crashes on rural roads to see that.

Driver inattention, error of judgment, impatience, tiredness, overcrowding, drugs and alcohol are the real reason for crashes, not the roads.

An immediate, dramatic change in driver attitude is required to lower the road toll, not billions of dollars creating more roads for trucks.

Marie Kaire Ngararatunua