Waka Kotahi has admitted they are falling short of meeting targets for the road to zero strategy introduced in 2019 to see a 40% reduction in deaths and serious injuries by 2030.
Road safety has become the focus of attention this week in the wake of the road tragedies, with Marlborough seeing two fatal crashes involving trucks on state highways.
Industry experts say a lack of Government investment is responsible for our increasing death toll year-on-year. This year already, 166 people have died in crashes, which is higher than pre-Covid levels for the same period.
Nick Leggett, the chief executive of the Road Transport Association, says he’s heard from truckers that the roads are currently the worst they’ve ever seen, and the number of accidents involving trucks and cars are on the rise too.
"What we would like to see is a campaign in partnership with the trucking industry around safety and trucks and all road users being conscious of the reality of a moving truck," Leggett said.
READ MORE: Picton crash: Driver among fatalities, two remain in hospital
He also says more needs to be done to educate drivers in their behaviours and managing fatigue.
AA’s motoring affairs general manager, Simon Douglas, agrees that our driving behaviour needs to be addressed.
"There’s a lot of evidence Kiwis are a little more aggressive, we don’t leave following distance, little more aggressive in our passing," Douglas said.
This, along with the lack of willingness from the Government to invest in road safety, is the reason why deaths on our roads continue to rise, according to Douglas.
Industry experts say a big problem in the Government’s road to zero plan is that there’s too much focus on just reducing speed limits, and while that’s one element, it won’t eliminate deaths.
Leggett says: "Road maintenance has been de-funded over a decade. Over six years, the cost of maintaining a kilometre stretch of highway has increased by 30% - we haven’t seen that per cent of increase in budget."
Douglas said while there is "no silver bullet", tools such as "wire road barrier, rumble strips, safer vehicles have all worked" overseas with "bringing down the road toll".
He says while we know what works, it’s time we apply those "at a pace and scale that we're not achieving right now to meet the goal we have for addressing serious death and injury on the road".
READ MORE: One dead in crash between truck, van in Marlborough
Waka Kotahi on Tuesday admitted to 1News they’re falling behind as lives continue to be lost.
The road to zero plan predicted the installation of 198km of median barriers and 322km of side barriers by mid-2021. But by April this year, only 61km of median barriers and 312km of side barriers were in place.
These current figures are around one-fifth of the way to the 2024 target, one Waka Kotahi themselves have called ambitious.
"I think we'll struggle to hit the 2024 targets but that being said this is about a long-term strategy and a long-term vision," Waka Kotahi’s director of land transport, Kane Patena, said.
"So even though we might be off to a slow start in some areas, the opportunity for us to accelerate that is there and that’s what we're focused on doing."
Patena also admitted the transport agency hasn't "fully delivered the targets for improving median barriers”, which he puts down to the installation processes being “very time-consuming and costly".
But experts say median barriers would have prevented Sunday’s deadly crash near Picton in which seven members of the same family died.
Waka Kotahi’s road network safety team is being restructured and there’s concern that’ll set road safety back.
"To hear today they've removed people with technical expertise in favour of layers of engagement managers and the likes is deeply concerning," Leggett said.
"What we see from Waka Kotahi are talk fests, not real action. They're falling behind in their delivery program of road to zero."
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told RNZ work was being done to bring down the road toll.
The Government had invested an additional $2.9 billion into road safety activities over the next three years, she said.
It had a target of a 40% reduction in serious road accidents by 2030.
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