Unforgiving roads a major factor in holiday road toll – Dog And Lemon Guide
At least half of the holiday road deaths might not have occurred on a well-built roading system, says the car review website dogandlemon.com.
Editor Clive Matthew-Wilson, who is an active road safety campaigner, says a large number of accidents involved a simple loss of control that turned into a preventable tragedy.
“Drivers, especially tourists and older drivers, frequently make simple mistakes. Yet on our unforgiving roads, these mistakes often end in tragedy.”
On Christmas day, French tourist Remi Morilleau, 37, died near Whangarei after his rental car crossed the centre line and collided with other vehicles[1]. He had arrived in the country only a few hours before. Morilleau’s crash happened just north of where a 64-year-old Englishman, who had also arrived in the country on the same day, died after a similarly head-on collision on November 4[2].
On January 3m Monty Broughton, 68, of Taupo, died after his vehicle left the road and went into a ditch[3].
On Boxing Day, Ngatokorua Tangimataiti, 80, and her 57-year-old daughter Are Tito died in a head-on crash south of Tokoroa[4].
A study by Monash University[5] of the effectiveness of roadside fencing and median barriers concluded that: “reductions of up to 90% in death and serious injury can be achieved, with no evidence of increased road trauma for motorcyclists.”
Matthew-Wilson describes many New Zealand roads as being like “a staircase without a handrail – you make the slightest mistake, you’re likely to get hurt.”
Matthew-Wilson believes that it’s largely pointless to try and prevent accidents by asking people to drive safely.
“Most of the people who died over Christmas were not reckless drivers. They were ordinary people who made simple mistakes. Thirty years of studies show that asking people to drive safely is an expensive waste of time.[6]”
“Let’s refocus on what works, before more lives are needlessly lost.”
[1] French tourist died on first day in NZ http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11567837
[2] Crash closes SH1 in Northland http://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503450&objectid=11540055
[3] 68-year-old dies from crash injuries http://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503438&objectid=11569378
[4] One dead after crash near Rotorua (see fatal crash summary)http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11569397
[5] Flexible barrier systems along high-speed roads: A life-saving opportunity, Larsson, M., Candappa, N.L., and Corben, B.F http://www.monash.edu/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/216806/muarc210.pdf
[6] A Comedy of Errors, Matthew-Wilson, C, 2015 http://dogandlemon.com/sites/default/files/A%20Comedy%20of%20Errors.pdf
I disagree with almost everything, sorry but you have completely missed the number one thing, education.
Our roads are not “bad”, for goodness sake, they are miles better than they were 15 years ago , inthe main they are smooth and well designed. the drivers jobs is to study the road and make appropriate changes.
1/ Teach drivers where the left hand wheels of their car are positioned, enhanced awareness of this allows drivers to reference from the left hand side of a car meaning they are less reliant on travelling near the centreline when directional confidence is required ( eg fog, rain, night, higher speeds)
2/ Ensure drivers know about their vehicles braking system , cars with ABS and cars without required a very different approach to emergency braking. drivers should be familiar with how ABS brakes feel when activated and what forces/conditions activate them.
3/ ensure drivers are trained in understanding weight transfer. braking and turning creates diagonal weight transfer ( the easiest way to upset a motor vehicle, usually ending in under/oversteer scenarios), keeping weight parallel and moving large forces slowly is critical. drivers need to “feel” cars.
4/ Increase following distances ( 2 secs – 4 secs) the two second rule is simply not enough, if reaction time is taken into account it’s not sufficient. it needs to be greater where there is no median barrier to allow for head ons, Whilst it’s a very hard one to fix because people pass you and fill in the gaps, in many cases we would be better off with a following distance rule than a speed limit
5/ remove the “road safety” mentality ( driving isn’t safe, never has been, never will be, we don’t think of crocodiles as safe and hence we don’t fiddle with the stereo when addressing a crocodile, nor do we worry about makeup or texting when dealing with a crocodile, nor is fatigue an issue, we pay attention to crocodiles for as long as we can because they are so dangerous. cars kill thousands of times more people than crocodiles do.
6/ teach drivers to read roads, to understand corner direction clues at night, to judge corner severity, to be aware of cambers, to spot adhesion issues ( leaves, moss, damp patches and correlate them to sun/shadows and wind direction and drainage off banks)
7/ Teach drivers enhanced vision techniques, to look as FAR ahead as possible , not 2 -3 car lengths, drivers should use peripheral vision to detect movement. This is probably the most important one. Google commentary driving and learn to do this as you drive.
8/ Teach people to be critical of your own driving, best way to get good at something is to be critical of your ability, most kiwis think they are great drivers and that everyone else is the problem, you are only as good as how much you are concentrating, how well you know your car, what you have observed and how you react.
9/ Know your car, is it front, rear or 4wd, does it have ABS brakes, traction control, what sort of tyres, how does it behave, does it have open diffs viscous or limited slip diffs ?
10 stop thinking about road safety in terms of I do x so I am safe. speed needs to be limited, we can’t have people travelling at 180km/h but there is nothing safe about 100km/h at all, the speed is safe mentality needs to go, safe speeds end about 30km/h assuming bikes or pedestrians are not involved.
11/ Practical skid control and vision training is worth much much more than a well designed highway, straight boring roads cause boredom and fatigue, as do quiet smooth cars. Mix them together with drivers who are fixated on their speedometers and you have a recipe for disaster, thats why people cross centrelines and make perception errors.
Have you EVER seen a road safety ad on any of these topics, ever ?