Safety

To survive on holiday roads, sleep in, turn your headlights on

Up to 50% of serious crashes involve fatigue. Truck drivers and recent arrivals from overseas are high risks.

 

Driving while tired or hungover can be as dangerous as driving while drunk, says the car review website dogandlemon.com.

Dogandlemon.com editor Clive Matthew-Wilson, who is an outspoken road safety campaigner, says:

“Fatigue is a factor in up to half of all crashes.

Trucks do the most damage on our roads, but pay the least towards fixing them

20% of the road toll involves trucks. Seven members of the same family died in this head-on collision with a truck near Picton. They were not speeding.

 

A call by the Road Transport Forum for increased spending on roads is “utterly hypocritical” says the car review website dogandlemon.com.

Seatbelts would have prevented many injuries in highway bus crash

All passenger buses that drive at more than 50km/h should be required to have seatbelts and all the passengers should be required to wear them, says the car review website dogandlemon.com.

New Zealand’s 'Third World' roads claim more innocent lives

The police and government are pushing discredited road safety strategies, says the car review website dogandlemon.com.

Editor Clive Matthew-Wilson, who is an outspoken road safety campaigner, says:

“For years we’ve been told that lowering speeds and a heavy enforcement of speed limits would lower the annual road toll. This has proved to be untrue."

Calls for more police pursuits misguided

Calls for the New Zealand police to resume active pursuits of fleeing car drivers would not reduce crime and would lead to multiple deaths, says the car review website dogandlemon.com.

Government ‘asleep at the wheel’ over road safety

The New Zealand government has utterly failed to take effective action to lower the road toll, says the car review website, dogandlemon.com.

Increased speeding fines unlikely to lower road toll

Proposals to increase speeding fines probably won’t reduce road deaths, says the car review website dogandlemon.com.

Editor Clive Matthew-Wilson, who is an outspoken road safety campaigner, says:

The government should require compulsory treatment for repeat drunk & drugged drivers

The government needs to urgently create a secure and caring environment for drivers who repeatedly offend while on drink or drugs, says the car review website dogandlemon.com.

Editor Clive Matthew-Wilson, who is an outspoken road safety campaigner, was commenting after Peter Leonard Thomas Stringfellow, 54, was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for a drunk-driving crash that left an eight-year-old boy with permanent disabilities.

Matthew-Wilson says addicted offenders who aren’t treated frequently reoffend once they leave prison.

Congestion charges hand over our roads to wealthy motorists

Congestion charges penalise poor people and fail to deal with the reasons for traffic congestion, says the car review website dogandlemon.com. 

Editor Clive Matthew-Wilson says:

“Congestion charges discourage ride-sharing and encourage wealthier people to use cars. But cities like Auckland weren’t built by wealthy people; Auckland was built by poor people who often had little choice but to drive to work.”

Government misrepresenting facts on roadside drug testing

The government’s proposed roadside drug tests are based on unreliable science, says the car review website dogandlemon.com.

Dogandlemon.com editor Clive Matthew-Wilson, whose road safety research was awarded by the Australian Police Journal, says the government is either mistaken or deliberately misrepresenting the facts on drugged driving.

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