Transport

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."

How to prevent your car being stolen by ram-raiders

It’s relatively easy to discourage car thieves from stealing your car, say the car review website dogandlemon.com. Editor Clive Matthew-Wilson says ram raiders usually target cars that are easily to steal, such as cheaper versions of the Toyota Aqua, Nissan Tiida, Mazda Demio and Mazda Atenza. 

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.

Criminals openly selling stolen cars, and getting away with it

Criminals are exploiting the vehicle registration system to sell stolen cars without penalty, says the car review website dogandlemon.com

Editor Clive Matthew-Wilson says:

“Thanks to an incredibly slack vehicle registration system, criminals are stealing vehicles, then simply going online and transferring the ownership. They then sell these stolen vehicles and walk away with the cash.”

“Worse, the police seem largely uninterested in catching these criminals.”

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:

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.”

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