The government must take responsibility for the road toll, says the car review website dogandlemon.com.
Editor Clive Matthew-Wilson, who is an active road safety campaigner, says:
“The government is fixated on lowering the road toll by changing behaviour. Every credible study ever done has shown that trying to change driver behaviour is the least successful way of saving lives.”
“The government has conned the public into believing that speeding is the cause of most accidents. We were told the police anti-speeding campaigns would lower the road toll. Surely it’s obvious this hasn’t worked.”
“However much the government tries to massage the figures, the reality is that about 80% of fatalities occur at speeds below the legal limit. Therefore, to claim that ticketing mildly speeding drivers will substantially lower the road toll is simply nonsense.”
Of the 20% of fatal accidents that occur over the speed limit, most involve either motorcyclists, or young, working-class males on the edge of the criminal community who are often blotto or tired or both. The government’s own studies show this.”
“As a matter of cold, scientific fact, fatal road accidents are mainly caused by five groups: substance abusers, tired drivers, highly reckless drivers, the very young and the very old. All five of these groups are largely immune to road safety messages because they believe they’re already doing okay.”
“If you want to know why the road toll fluctuates, the most likely explanation is the economy. Multiple studies have shown that the road toll rises and falls with economic cycles. Scientists believe that a booming economy means that the highest risk drivers have more money to buy fuel and make long trips. When the economy falls, people have less money for fuel and become more cautious. It sounds crazy, but it’s true.”
“It is universally accepted that the overall downward trend in the road toll is due to safer roads, safer cars and improved medical treatment. Yet the government still tries to lower the road toll by targeting functional families going 5km over the speed limit. It hasn’t worked and it won’t work, because functional families very rarely cause fatal accidents.”
Matthew-Wilson says it’s often far more effective to change the roads than to try and change the behaviour of drivers. He gave the example of the Auckland harbour bridge, which used to suffer one serious road accident every week.
“After a barrier was installed down the middle, the serious accidents stopped immediately. There wasn’t one less hoon or drunk driver, and yet the accidents stopped, because the road was changed in a way that prevented mistakes from becoming fatalities.”
