+ Grieving mum calls for tourist driver tests
The grieving parents of a man killed in an accident with a foreign driver have told a select committee the Government could do more to keep accidents from happening.
Judy Richards and Mike Middleton lost their son Rhys, 23, in February on State Highway 5 north of Napier.
Chinese national Jieling Xiao, 27, drove her Toyota Rav 4 completely off the road before suddenly veering back directly into the path of Middleton’s motorbike as he was travelling behind her.
‘‘She threw him 100, 150 metres down the road; snapped his neck at the base of his skull, split his bronchial tube, so his lungs filled up with blood. He had 13 injuries and any one of them would have killed him,’’ a tearful Richards told the Transport and Industrial Relations Select Committee yesterday.
She was in Parliament to submit on a petition bearing the signatures of over 8500 people calling for New Zealand driving licence tests for any visitors on a visa longer than 3 months.
Currently, anyone in the country longer than 12 months who wants to drive is required to ‘‘convert’’ their driver’s licence into a New Zealand one – a process that often involves a practical test.
But those here for 12 months or less can use their licence from another country without having to sit any kind of exam.
Xiao, who was later convicted of dangerous driving causing death, was in New Zealand on a 12-month visa. She was allowed to drive here as she held a comparable Chinese driving licence.
However, it subsequently emerged that she had never driven faster than 50kmh as most of her driving had been done within cities.
She was sentenced to 17 months in prison but was instead deported home to China.
Richards said New Zealand needed to equip overseas visitors with the tools to drive on our roads.
‘‘There’s been all these questions of ‘how are we going to do this’ and ‘what’s the cost?’ but ... what’s the cost of a life? Unless you’ve lost a child, you have no idea how I feel,’’ Richards said.
She also called for tourists wanting to rent a car to be given a quick 12-minute scratchie test about our road rules or possibly a two-minute practical test.
‘‘A few years ago there was a rental car guy who walked off the site because he had hired a car to a guy who couldn’t even drive the car out of the driveway.
‘‘My aim was to open a debate on the discussion on how we can curb so much damage on our roads,’’ Richards said.
‘‘It’s not only keeping New Zealanders safe it’s also keeping [foreign drivers] safe. I don’t want anyone to go through what I’ve been through. If I can save someone else’s family then my job is done.’’
The select committee would hear from the Ministry of Transport before presenting the petition to Parliament before the election.
Ministry of Transport statistics put the number of fatal crashes caused by overseas drivers at around 6 per cent.
In 2016, 25 people died in car crashes where a foreign driver was found to be at fault.
"If I can save someone else's family, then my job is done."
Judy Richards, whose son Rhys was killed by a foreign driver