Road safety moves not cutting toll

There were more fatal crashes involving alcohol last year than in 2014, despite the lowering of the drink-driving limit.

Latest statistics from the Ministry for Transport reveal a 25 per cent rise in the number of fatal crashes involving alcohol, and 19 per cent more relating to speed.

This is despite a cut in the drink-driving limit in December 2014, as well as other measures intended to reduce the road toll, such as lowering the speed limit threshold to 4kmh during holiday periods, and tougher driver licence tests.

The ministry said most drivers were responding to the changes but there remained a hard core who were not.

The worst alcohol offenders were men in the 20-24 age bracket, and losing control on corners while over the legal limit was the most common way in which deaths occurred.

The Automobile Association responded to the figures by calling for mandatory breathalyser locks to be fitted to the vehicles of all repeat offenders, as well as anyone caught highly intoxicated.

‘‘Interlocks became a sentencing option in New Zealand in 2012 but only about 2 per cent of eligible offenders are being sentenced to them,’’ spokesman Dylan Thomsen said.

‘‘They are one of the best weapons we have in the fight against drink-driving, but are being left sitting in the holster.’’

Road safety campaigner Clive Matthew-Wilson, editor of the car review website Dog and Lemon, said the Government was simply repeating failed strategies.

‘‘Most studies show that reductions in the road toll are achieved by restricting access to alcohol, improving roads, improving vehicles and improving medical attention.

‘‘Yet alcohol is promoted like candy, especially to young people.

‘‘We need to give people alternatives to driving, so highrisk groups can avoid being behind the wheel of a car.

‘‘It’s no accident the American states with the lowest road tolls are the ones with the best public transport,’’ Matthew-Wilson said.

A total of 90 people were killed on the roads in 2015 when alcohol was involved, 11 more than in 2014.

When speed was the contributing factor, 17 more died than the previous year – a 20 per cent rise.

Ministry of Transport manager of land transport safety Brent Johnston said that, over the longterm, the number of people killed was reducing ‘‘but we are all disappointed to see a recent increase in the road toll’’.

‘‘Disappointingly, speed and alcohol continue to feature prominently as contributing factors to crashes. Changing this requires significant behavioural change, and this is something that tends to happen over time.

‘‘Once we have three years worth of data following this legal alcohol limit change, we will be evaluating the effectiveness of the policy,’’ Johnston said.

‘‘It’s also worth noting that, in 2011, the legal limit for drivers under the age of 20 was reduced to zero. This has been associated with a 70 per cent reduction in drink-drive court cases involving young drivers since 2009.’’

Associate Transport Minister Craig Foss said there was no silver bullet to cutting the road toll.

‘‘Last year 319 men, women and children died on our roads . . . it’s heartbreaking to consider their deaths may have been preventable.’’ Take a shower at a YHA hostel in the near future and your water will be heated by the sun.

The Youth Hostels Association of New Zealand, a charitable organisation, is investing in a $2.7 million solar energy network for 11 of its hostels. Based on output, that was the largest network in the country, Ben Cloake, sales manager for Sunshine Solar, said.

Once all systems are up and firing, the roofs will generate 609,000kwh of solar energy a year.

That is enough to power about 100 homes, do 300,000 loads of washing or run a low-energy lightbulb for more than 8000 years.

The three-year project will see more than 880 panels go up across hostels from Franz Josef to Auckland, and more than 3300 solar heating tubes, which will use the sun’s energy to warm up the water supply at each site.

‘‘Each single tube is an individual water heater,’’ Cloake said.

The $2.7m project included plumbing and new hot water systems, and would pay itself off in about six years, YHA New Zealand central area manager Chris Sperring said.

‘‘The bottom line commitment is people, profit, planet,’’ Sperring said. ‘‘Sustainability is paramount to the three of those things.’’

YHA Franz Josef was the first site to get the solar treatment, in March, when 108 square metres of solar panels were laid on the roof.

The system would eventually include Tesla powerwalls, Sperring said. Made by the electric car company, these are essentially solar power storage systems, which can be tapped into once the sun sets.