Lowest Road Toll in 50 Years! Good Policing or Good Luck?

**xyz823** · 08-06-2010, 07:40 AM

Road toll for the holiday weekend was 1! The lowest in 50 years!

Is this a result of a strong police presence on the road and the 4km/hr speed buffer? Or is it pure luck?

**gary67** · 08-06-2010, 07:47 AM

Bit of both I would think given the weather down south

**prefect** · 08-06-2010, 08:32 AM

Yes the police deserve a bouquet. There just dont seem to be as many suicidal nuts on the road as 10 years ago.

**Greven** · 08-06-2010, 09:06 AM

I thought there would be more idiots try to drive through the flooded roads too fast. Perhaps the crap weather kept everyone at home.

I expect all the warnings about strict enforcement of speed limits helped. If only they didn't let little old ladies drive at 70kph on the open road (60 whenever there was a slight bend in the road). She didn't even pull over in the little towns.

**paulw** · 08-06-2010, 09:16 AM

Good luck I think. I didn't see as many people on the roads this weekend as I have seen on previous weekends and people here at work decided not to go away as the weather looked crap... Of course the revenue gathering section of the NZ Police will see this as an excuse to make the 4Km tolerance permanent and when the road toll climbs again what will be their next target??

**prefect** · 08-06-2010, 09:29 AM

The open road 100 kph should not be treated as a target speed, one must drive to the conditions.
Thank god if there is one for the *555 system for dobbing in nutcase drivers.
What I think needs to happen is if you drive 10 kph over the limit your car is towed from the side of the road or driven only to a nominated destination. Then the car woulds be towed and impounded and crushed (except vintage, rare. classic cars) I thinks its despicable people who have been caught speeding can just get in their cars and drive off again.

**Phil B** · 08-06-2010, 09:34 AM

Originally Posted by paulw

Good luck I think. I didn't see as many people on the roads this weekend as I have seen on previous weekends and people here at work decided not to go away as the weather looked crap... Of course the revenue gathering section of the NZ Police will see this as an excuse to make the 4Km tolerance permanent and when the road toll climbs again what will be their next target??

It will never stop the people that excessively speed. Those that do 120 just to get in front of the old grannie because she's going too slow are the ones that pay the price. The excessive speeders don't care what the limit is anyway, so why would they worry about 4kph. The weather kept people at home. Wait for labour day & see it all return to normal

**Metla** · 08-06-2010, 10:01 AM

The police presence is obviously a large deterrent on the main roads during daylight hours, I saw quite a few out on the road.

The fuss over the speed limnit is however making the management look pretty damn stupid, The behaviour of the drivers has nothing to do with whatever number is chosen as the "safe" speed, and this weekend is an abnormality.

I'm indifferent to whatever speed they want to enforce, But if thats the best policy our top officials can come up with then I'm pretty disappointed, even more so at their claims at the effect it had on the amount of deaths this weekend.

**Zippity** · 08-06-2010, 10:22 AM

Shame on you New Zealand.

Only 1 road death.

What is going to happen when we have a "Zero" count?

**johcar** · 08-06-2010, 10:32 AM

Normally I am a strong supporter of the Police.

However when it comes to the road toll, my hackles rise.

Andy Knackers-face from NZTA will be on the news tonight claiming victory over the holiday toll for the Police, but of course, when there is a high toll, the drivers get blamed (rightly so), rather than the Police getting blamed for slack enforcement.

There is stuff-all that can be done to reduce the road toll - it's a waste of time trying - people would die on the roads even if the enforced speed limit was 70km/h. Speed is only contributory in most cases.

It's the not "driving to the conditions" that's the killer!

The problem is there are too many people on the roads who are overconfident drivers: "I know best", "I am always in control of my car", "I am a better driver than almost anyone else on the road", "Double yellow lines are only a guideline" are the points of view these people have. And they are almost always WRONG.

Getting (and holding) a drivers' licence is far too easy in this country and the penalties for serious infringing (boyracers, drunk driving etc) are weak (to put it nicely).

The main influence over the road toll is the weather.