https://youtu.be/UpBjuiJ6ico

There are many attributes that can cause traffic accidents. Road layout can be one of them, however the main contributor is usually speed. Some of the fastest and busiest roads in Northland pass right through Whangarei, and drivers are expected to shift through 100kmh, 70kmh and 50kmh speed zones without incident. Accidents can happen, but it’s our drivers who can prevent crashes – not the roads.

NZ Transport Agency’s ‘Numbers’ ad campaign targets competent drivers aged between 20-49 years who drive regularly and “put the kays in.” NZTA describes them as people who drive “comfortably fast.” Know anyone like that?

Last summer’s road toll was atrocious, and accidents continue to occur, even in our low speed areas and even after decades of campaigns from NZTA and Police. I don’t need to tell you what would happen to a child if hit at 51kmh. There’s a good reason the legal speed limit when travelling past a

parked school bus is 20kmh. Damaging an adult’s car at 55kmh means you’re taking them off the road, making them late to work, and handing them the cost of alternative transport, not to mention insurance costs.

Here’s food for thought; the average text message takes 5 seconds to write and send. If you’re doing 100kmh (27.7metres per second) and you take your eyes off the road to send that text, you will have driven the length of a rugby field completely blind.

In 2014, the social cost of road crashes and injuries recorded by police, hospitals and ACC was $3.14b, or almost $700 for every man, woman and child in this country. Putting this in perspective, the entire gross domestic production of Northland is around $5b.

I live on part of the state highway within Whangarei and I can tell you trucks and cars drive past my gate between 60 and 70kmh, when the speed limit along this section is only 50kmh. The new roading layout proposed by NZTA is planning to have cycle lanes on it too. Recipe for disaster? Perhaps.

Summer’s coming up. That means a lot of driving, a lot of drinking, and a lot of laid-back attitude. It doesn’t have to mean car crashes. There are some small sections of our Northland highway which can handle cars driving at 120kmh, however that doesn’t mean you can.  We also have an aging, elderly population living along our urban streets to consider.

This summer, drive to the conditions and try to stick to the speed limits. Enjoy touring our beautiful district, just as much as we enjoy living here.