The government is determined to provide new impetus to road safety in New Zealand. An average of 510 road deaths and 6,000 hospitalisations every year add up to far too much trauma for the people involved, their families, friends and communities. This anguish is unnecessary and we should not just accept it. We aim to tackle this problem by building on our existing road safety programme and preparing a Road Safety Strategy to the year 2010. Safer roads are necessary for the social and economic well-being of all New Zealanders. When developed, the Strategy will also help address our other priority areas such as closing the gaps for Maori and Pacific peoples in health outcomes —in this instance through reduced involvement in road crash injuries. What we are now seeking is your input to the proposed Strategy’s development, and support for it once it is finalised. We welcome your views on the overall goal, or level of ambition for road safety, that should be set for the year 2010. The proposal is for New Zealand to catch up in 2010 to where the safest countries in the world are now: they have already reduced their road toll to as low as 6 deaths per 100,000 people and 1.2 deaths per 10,000 vehicles. This is an achievable, albeit ambitious, goal for New Zealand.Given increasing traffic growth, it would be equivalent to halving our road toll by 2010. What are your thoughts —is the proposed goal too ambitious,about right,or not ambitious enough? The proposed Strategy has been designed to improve safety on our roads. It focuses on the safety features of the different road environments that characterise New Zealand’s road net. The final Strategy will have a range of targets to help track progress towards its overall goal. The proposal is to set fatality targets and serious injury targets for the years 2004, 2007 and 2010. Related targets could also be set for each local government region, as well as targets for specific road user groups (e.g. pedestrians, cyclists, Maori, Pacific peoples, and older drivers). We could also set targets for some of the main safety priorities (e.g. speed, alcohol, safety belts, the road network, and the vehicle fleet). Your thoughts are invited on these targets, particularly as they affect youre work. The proposed strategy also seeks to protect pedestrians and cyclists who are vulnerable road users; accommodate the special needs of older road users; make school trips even safer; cope with the dispersed pattern of work trips; encourage greater levels of safety belt wearing, especially among Maori and Pacific peoples; make open roads safer;respond to differing regional needs; and improve the safety of New Zealand ’s vehicle fleet. We would welcome your thoughts on these priorities. (A)
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