The AA says there has been little improvement on New Zealand roads after 319 people were killed in crashes in 2021.
“In the last 60 years there has only been three when New Zealand has had less than 300 annual road deaths, which were all early last decade,” AA policy and research manager Simon Douglas said in a media release.
“Even with the pandemic and lockdowns of the last two years, we have sadly and disappointingly not been able to get back below that mark of 300 annual road deaths.”
Douglas said while the country “appears to have turned around the trend of increasing road deaths that took place from 2013 to 2017”, more should be done to improve safety on the roads.
He added that while the population increase over the past decade “will have an impact on crash numbers” due to the rise in the number of vehicles on the road, the death toll is higher than that of Australia.
“They were on track to have about 4.4 road deaths per 100,000 people this year while New Zealand had 6.3.
“There is no reason why our roads shouldn’t be as safe as Australia’s and if they were, we would have had nearly 100 less deaths this year.”
The AA is calling on the Government and authorities to upgrade high-risk roads and key highways with barriers and other safety improvements; invest more into road maintenance; introduce speed reductions targeted in high-risk areas and befitting of the road environment; increase the number of breathalyser tests and introduce roadside drug testing; fit vehicles with alcohol interlocks for all high-risk drink drivers; get more people into safer vehicles; and ensure young people are provided with support to learn to drive safely.
Douglas said past AA Research Foundation studies have shown that while half of the country’s fatal crashes involve extreme and reckless behaviour, the other half involve people having a momentary lapse or mistake.
“No one is perfect and we could all find at least one thing to do better on the roads this year,” he said.
“For some drivers that might be making sure they keep a bigger following distance, for others it might be slowing their speed to the conditions, or it could be not using your phone behind the wheel or not carrying on driving when they are feeling tired.
“The AA would encourage every driver to aim to make one change to be a bit safer behind the wheel in 2022. If all of us did that, it would make a real difference in how safe our roads are.”
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