Motorcyclists deserve an explanation from the Government about why just one fifth of the money they have been charged has been spent on safety while the carnage continues on the roads, says Labour’s ACC and Transport Spokesperson Sue Moroney.
Labour today revealed information showing $15.1m had been collected in an additional motorcycle safety levy introduced in 2010, but just $2.9m had been spent on initiatives by July 2016.
“When I see that motorcyclists were 26% of the deaths from the horrific official holiday road toll this summer, I can understand the anger they feel over the lack of progress while they continue to pay the price in both money and lives.
“It can take a few years to get new projects up and running, but this Government has already had six years to make better use of this fund.
“The argument that they will now increase spending on motorcycle safety initiatives is cold comfort for those who have lost loved ones or had their lives shattered through motorcycle accidents over that time.
“I have recently been approached by injured motorcyclists frustrated at the lack of an awareness campaign on motorcycles aimed at other road users – this important measure is long-overdue.
“Motorcyclists rightly expect this dedicated levy to be spent on their safety and not siphoned off into other projects,” says Sue Moroney.
Labour should aggressively push for freight to return to rail as a way to make the roads far more safe again.
Trucks would no doubt contribute to the wear and tear on our roads and I’m sure there would be a few roads around that were never intended for heavy haulage, otherwise I have found truckies to be better drivers than most.
To help make our roads safer I would suggest, apart from motorcycle awareness that some focus is aimed at the use of passing lanes on our highways. How extremely frustrating it is to be continually stuck behind a vehicle doing say 70 – 80ks and to then have that vehicle speed up to 100ks or more when using a passing lane. Most people I know have experienced this frustration.
It would also help if those towing caravans, trailers and horse floats etc considered the idea of pulling over when they have half a dozen or so + cars behind them rather than wait for a kilometer of traffic to build up behind them or to arrive at the next passing lane where people are now desperate to pass, most can’t and those left at the front break heavily etc to avoid the impending bottle neck.
Note: I ride a motorcycle, have never driven a truck, have never towed a caravan but towed a few trailers and horse floats.
OK, a little off topic, but yes, please shift as much as poss onto rail. I suffer minor (well, very minor, I cope OK) terror attacks every time a log truck passes in the other direction. And yet, a few metres over there beside the road, there’s a railway line. That where the logs should be on! The carnage a load of logs flying through the air at 80-100 kph could wreak upon on-coming/bystanders, if the load detached, is terrible to imagine.
And, as for slow traffic, I do like those road signs that say “Traffic behind? Let is pass”.
Btw, I write as one who had major fractures, as a young fellow, riding a motor-bike (a BSA Bantam, hardly a speed machine) into a car that did a U-turn without looking. Of course the driver was unscathed. That gave me the view ever since that I would prefer to go along a road protected by a metal carapace, rather than limbly openly vulnerable.
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