Faces behind year’s road carnage
They were husbands, wives, sons and daughters. They were drivers, passengers, cyclists and pedestrians. All 55 had their lives cut short in a fatal crash. Why was Canterbury’s 2017 road toll so high? Sam Sherwood reports.
2017 was the worst year on Canterbury roads in a decade. Almost twice as many people died this year compared with last. The toll is the highest since 2007, when
56 people died. To go any higher than that you have to go back to the 20th century.
Several of this year’s fatal crashes involved speeds of more than 190kmh. In another, someone drove 100kmh in a 50kmh zone. Some drivers were not wearing seatbelts, others were drunk.
The Press spoke with some of the families who lost a loved one this year. They talk of loss, of last goodbyes and of never thinking it would happen to them.
Police are lost for words as to why this year’s toll is so high. They say it has put them under enormous pressure in terms of investigating the crashes – and trying to prevent more.
‘‘This simple answer is that we don’t know,’’ Canterbury road policing manager Inspector Phil Dean said.
Policing alone will not bring the road toll down, he said. ‘‘By the time we’re involved, it’s too late. Either the crash has happened, or the person is already committing the offence.’’
Sergeant Nigel Price, who runs Canterbury’s serious crash unit, described the team as ‘‘road detectives’’.
‘‘Detectives figure out ‘whodunnit’ on a murder. We know who done it – it’s our job to figure out how done it, why done and how fast.’’
This year complacency was to blame for about 36 per cent of the crashes. ‘‘That’s people not concentrating on the task at hand. they’re going through stop signs, they’re going through red lights – they’re distracted’’, Price said.
No seatbelts, drunk drivers and speed were common factors. Price admitted to a sense of disappointment with motorists as the same causes claimed lives over and over again.
‘‘I think people get in their cars and just switch their brains off.
‘‘They read it in the paper that somebody else has died because they’ve crossed the centre line or gone to sleep or failed to stop at a stop sign.
‘‘They read it all and they ignore it – and the exact same thing happens again.’’