Police issued a warning earlier this week that the annual road death toll would rise to 200 if the current accident rate continued. Between January and April this year 102 people (now 104) have already been killed on the roads.
Provisional Police data supplied to Dieseltalk shows that 27 of the fatalities involved a truck, but this figure does not take into account ‘fault’ until full accident reports are assessed. The provisional figures also include trucks of all sizes, not just heavy rigs.
However, a police spokesperson said “The truck crash fact sheet shows that in general trucks have the primary responsibility in about a third of the fatal crashes they are involved in:”
The provisional statistics do not indicate a correlation between the reported skilled truck driver shortage say police.
“At the current rate another 200 people will die and another 1900 will be hospitalised by the end of the year unless we all do our part, whether as drivers, passengers, mates or family,” says Assistant commissioner road policing Dave Cliff.
Despite an overall downward trend April 2014 has bucked a declining death toll with 31 deaths – the worst since 2010 when 42 people died -14 more than in April 2013.
“Frustratingly, it’s still the basics – drinking and driving, going too fast for the conditions and not wearing a seatbelt, or a combination of all three – that is needlessly killing large numbers of New Zealanders every week,” says Cliff.
“So far this year, 102 people have already died with a third of the year barely over. That is 15 more than at the same time in 2013. Hundreds more have been seriously injured in crashes that were largely avoidable.”
Detailed NZTA truck accident information for year ended 31 December 2012 here.
