-
Visiting road safety expert, Eric Howard - Source: Close Up -
Watch Video
-
Related
New Zealand could save 1100 lives on the roads over the next 10 years, a visiting road safety expert says.
In the past 12 months, 368 people have died on New Zealand roads, a figure Australian private traffic safety consultant Eric Howard says is unnecessary.
Howard told TV ONE's Close Up programme that increasing the driving age to 18 is the first step to reducing the toll.
"You could save 20 lives a year if the licensing age was 18 years. I commend the government for lifting it to 16, but let's hope that's a small milestone on the way to 18."
Howard said another 25 lives every year could be saved by lowering the blood alcohol limit to 0.05 (50mg alcohol/100ml blood).
"It is remarkable that New Zealand has not been able to fix this, it really is," he told Mark Sainsbury.
Howard oversaw the development of Arrive Alive!, the Victorian Road Safety Strategy in 2002-2007, which led to significant a road toll reduction there.
An international expert, he has done road safety reviews for Canada, Sweden, Dubai and India.
He recommended more stringent law enforcement to clamp down on speedsters - another vital component of cutting the toll.
"The amount of speed enforcement needs to be increased to bring it to levels comparable with some of the Australian states, in terms of the number of vehicles monitored.
"There'd be 50 lives a year saved if you could get improved compliance with speed."
But it isn't just drivers who were the target of his attention.
Howard said the state of New Zealand roads is a concern, and the government should put an extra $150 million a year into improving roads.
"Putting in barriers, putting in tactile centre-lining, tactile edge-lining, sealing shoulders, putting up barriers - I estimate all those would save approximately 80 lives a year by 2010."
He said the best way to address all of these issues would be to establish a bipartisan parliamentary committee to look at resolving issues around road safety.
