A new website aimed at giving safety information to tourist drivers is a dangerous waste of time, says the car review website dogandlemon.com.
Editor Clive Matthew-Wilson, who is an active road safety campaigner, says:
“By setting up this website instead of taking direct action to halt tourist accidents, the government is dramatically increasing the risk to other road users.”
“First the government denies there’s a real problem, even though tourist accidents make up around 25% of the road toll in the South Island. Then the government acknowledges there’s a problem, but tries to solve it by handing out brochures and tagging steering wheels. Now the government is offering a website to those who can be bothered to go there. These responses are a very bad joke. It’s time for action.”
Matthew-Wilson has repeatedly called for tourist drivers to be banned from driving vehicles within 24 hours of arriving in this country.
“Why is this so hard for government to grasp? The police say it’s unsafe; the government’s own experts say it's unsafe; the public knows that it’s unsafe, yet the government continues to try and solve the problem by saying ‘drive safely’ to tourists.”
Matthew-Wilson gave the example of Hong Kong national Shu Na Lo, 27, who recently killed his mother and seriously injured his sister after falling asleep behind the wheel of a rental car he had hired directly after arriving from a flight from Melbourne on September 30.
“Would a road safety website have prevented this accident? Of course not. Even assuming that the driver of that car could understand the meaning of the safety messages after a long flight from another country, he clearly thought he was safe to be behind the wheel of a car.”
“Driving tired is as dangerous as driving drunk. Rental car firms would not be allowed to rent a car to a drunk driver, but are allowed to rent a car to a traveller who’s liable to fall asleep and kill someone. This is just wrong.”
Matthew-Wilson also believes all drivers – including New Zealanders – should pass a simple, computer-based competency test before being allowed to rent vehicles.
“The government excuse that a computer-based competency test would breach our obligations under the International Driver’s Licence treaty is just more nonsense. This isn’t a test aimed at people carrying an international driver’s licence: it’s a safety test that should to be passed by anyone of any age, nationality or race before they could rent a car.”
“It’s also clear the government doesn't really understand what I mean by an interactive competency test: Here's a rather simple, mechanical version of what I have in mind. Remember, this test was developed to evaluate London bus drivers in the 1930s and was so successful that it was still in use by the RAF in the early 21st century. The computer students at an Auckland college are currently working on an electronic version.”
“There also needs to be a ban on renting vehicles that don’t have electronic stability control. Fatal accidents that begin with a loss of control are common on vehicles that don’t have stability control. Electronic stability control reduces your chances of a fatal collision by up to 56%. It’s particularly effective at preventing the sort of accidents that tourists frequently have after drifting into gravel at the side of the road.”
“The rental industry needs to weed out the bad drivers and unsafe vehicles. The government needs to fix up our rural roads, so simple mistakes don't turn into tragic fatalities. Until these problems are fixed, there will be no real change to the ongoing stream of serious accidents involving tourists."
“Setting up a website is easy, but setting up a website won’t save lives. Safer drivers, safer roads and safer cars save lives. It’s simple and obvious to everyone except the government, which continues to support strategies that have been proven to fail, while ignoring proven ways of saving lives. This is just shameful.”
