New Zealand’s ‘Road to Zero’ road safety strategy for 2020-2030 targets reducing annual road deaths and serious injuries by 40% by 2030. Halfway through 2022 and comparing statistics with 2019, (before COVID), we are clearly heading in the wrong direction while some countries are effectively improving their crash statistics.
The driver education industry recognises the true underlying causes of crashes is mainly caused through errant driver behaviour and it is internationally recognised, that around 94% of motor vehicle crashes are directly attributable to driver behaviour.
Within the Road to Zero strategy, “road user choices” is covered quite extensively around the peripheral aspects of driver actions, however, what is not addressed is the true underlying causes of motor vehicle crashes.
These are directly attributable to driver behaviour in terms of insufficient driving knowledge, safety awareness and decision making. Evidence of these actions are in the form of driver distractions, impairment from drugs and alcohol, decisions around speed choices, lack of journey planning and poor knowledge of vehicle technology.
Actions to address these influences are absent from the strategy. Through workshops, seminars, in-vehicle driving assessments, across all driver age groups, the driver education industry has identified huge gaps in driver knowledge and understanding of the true causes of crashes.
Driving in today’s current environment requires drivers to have a high level of knowledge and awareness to recognise risk increasing factors and make appropriate risk reduction decisions. At the same time, drivers must be constantly encouraged to self-evaluate their actions. These actions are also noticeably absent from the driver licence testing criteria.
It is true, NZ has many unforgiving roads and error enforcing conditions which require knowledge and awareness to deal with. Many thousands of drivers successfully negotiate these conditions and continuously have safe trips.
Perhaps these drivers should be acknowledged with some form of incentives? Improvements to the roading system take time and money whereas, imparting knowledge and awareness is virtually instant.
Road safety enforcement by the police stretches their resources and often police time is diverted (from other criminal offences) while attending vehicle crashes, roadside inspections and subsequent administrative time required for completing and attending legal proceedings etc. With many motor vehicle crashes, no ‘root cause’ analysis is undertaken, and hence critical information can be overlooked.
One of the significant driver education issues at the present time is Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency’s basic driver education information that is used to be a safe and competent driver. This reference information is outdated and compared to many other countries (UK, USA, Europe) does not address critical driver behaviour interventions required by drivers in today’s driving environment across all driver age groups.
The use of motor vehicles in today’s society starts at a very early age and it is therefore critical that the minds of all road users have the opportunity to establish strong and robust psychomotor thresholds towards road safety.
Other countries have recognised this opportunity and have road safety/driver education interventions firmly embedded into their educational systems at very early stages. This is another reason why driver education should be embedded into the NZ education system.
*Peter Sheppard is one of NZ’s leading fleet safety and driver education specialists. His work has included research with Waikato University and advice to government and the transport industry on fuel efficient driving and fleet safety management. This article appeared in the July edition of TransportTalk.
