How bad is the NZ road toll really?

[SS90]

A conversation yesterday afternoon lead to a bit of research just now.

I wanted to compare the NZ road deaths to the Austrian road deaths (given that the open road speed in most of Europe is 130 km/h (excluding of course Germany's Autobahn), and NZ has 100 km/h (and NZ's roading system (mostly comprises of what you would term here as "Land Straße" (essentially not a motorway)

It's not what I expected, given that there are just over 8 million people in Austria, and 4 million in NZ.

http://www.austriantimes.at/news/Gen...eath_toll_down


http://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/road-deaths/toll.html

[davereid]

We give the road toll a lot of attention... perhaps its because we all blame the other fellow, and its easy to tax and police. But more kiwis die from DIY. 200 a year die from falls alone.

Better make NZ safer, and give the families a ticket.

Ref :
http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/home-...t-year/5/23258

Monday, 7 September, 2009 - 09:04

Latest statistics from ACC provide shocking evidence that New Zealanders are not taking home safety seriously. Last year more than 650,000 people were injured in their homes and 573 of those people died as a result. In Canterbury alone, there were more than 81,000 home injuries costing $80 million.

[SS90]

Yes, it wold seem when it comes to vehicle related deaths (and remembering most of NZ roads lack the "safety barrier" and motorway provides), Kiwi's road deaths it would seem are no different to other countries, half a world away, that can legally go faster.

[davereid]

I bet we do a lot more miles and have higher rates of vehicle ownership too. Many European cities are ancient, narrow street affairs that lend themselves nicely to public transport. In NZ we built low density housing, and (thank the lord) don't use public transport - we all like to get here on the bike or in the car.

[Dave Lobster]

Is there every going to be an acceptable road toll?
Is 100 a year low enough? How about 3000? Does it really make a difference unless you know one of the people?

[BiK3RChiK]

Better watch out if you are in the Central District of NZ now... You are being targetted by 'hidden' camera's. Although they were targetting speeding drivers, they said on the News item, that inattentive drivers were the ones causing accidents. Kind of didn't make sense to me. But there ya go!...

[pzkpfw]

I used to work at Motor Reg. (MANY years ago).

The internal newsletter used to have a line like:

"Year to date road toll : 200. Target for the year : 300."

[CookMySock]

It must be pretty fucking terrible, because there's a multi-billion-dollar industry being built around it, providing tens of millions of dollars income for the government!

Steve

[Tank]

given that the open road speed in most of Europe is 130 km/h

The funny think with numbers is that people them to reflect their own views.

The speed limit is NOT 130kph in Europe.

In France the Motorway limit is 130 - but the 'open road' limit (being roads like our very own SW1 - being one lane each way for most of it) is only 90kph (or 80 if its wet). In the UK the single carriageway (one lane each way) is 60MPH (100kphish), Even Germany is only 100kph once off the motorway. Spain 90 to 100kph, Italy 90kph. (again on like for like roads).

Perhaps if NZ had motorways like some in Europe (and we never will) - then we could have limits to match - but the upshot is that they just arnt that different.

[Dave Lobster]

The funny think with numbers is that people them to reflect their own views.

The speed limit is NOT 130kph in Europe.

In France the Motorway limit is 130 - but the 'open road' limit (being roads like our very own SW1 - being one lane each way for most of it) is only 90kph (or 80 if its wet). In the UK the single carriageway (one lane each way) is 60MPH (100kphish), Even Germany is only 100kph once off the motorway. Spain 90 to 100kph, Italy 90kph. (again on like for like roads).

Perhaps if NZ had motorways like some in Europe (and we never will) - then we could have limits to match - but the upshot is that they just arnt that different.

But they're not enforced with such blind vigour. If traffic is flowing nicely, the police wont nick everyone for 'speeding'.
I've travelled on the M25 where the 'average' speed of the traffic was in the region of 120mph. Regularly travelled on the M40 being the slowest thing on the road at 90mph. Speeds in excess of 100mph on the A9 (single lane) in Scotland.

You can't compare Europe with here. The skillsets of drivers here are completely different to those of european drivers.

[scumdog]

The tally?

Frikkin' bad!!

Especially since most fatals aren't 'accidents' - they're mainly caused by fuckwittedness and should be preventable..

[avgas]

The tally?
Frikkin' bad!!
Especially since most fatals aren't 'accidents' - they're mainly caused by fuckwittedness and should be preventable..

Yeah but apparently abortions are bad

[Marmoot]

I wanted to compare the NZ road deaths to the Austrian road deaths (given that the open road speed in most of Europe is 130 km/h (excluding of course Germany's Autobahn), and NZ has 100 km/h

Very simple really.

With 23% slower speed in NZ (100km/h vs. 130km/h), the drivers would spend 23% more time on the road due to the slower travel. This leads to 23% increased risk of accident happening, since accident risk presents when you are on the road. Notwithstanding any anomalies, in normal situation the odds of accidents happening per capita would be 23% higher, so the number of accidents per capita would be 23% higher.

Now, if we look at the population size, NZ has 4 million while Austria has around 8 million.
So NZ in reality has half of Austrian population.

Applying the 23% higher accident per capita, we end up with a total number or accident that is 38% lower than the total Austrian number of accident, or in other words a total number of accident in NZ would be 62% of the total number of accidents in Austria.
For example, if in a given year Austria has 100 accidents, we would have 62 accidents. This higher-than-half number is despite our population being only half of Austria.

This is assuming all other factors are constant.
For example: "To err is human", and since "Human NZ = Human Austria" (equality, remember?) then "Err% chance NZ would equal Err% chance Austria".

So, the most effective way to beat Austrian accident risk is to increase the NZ speedlimit to reduce the amount each driver spend on the road. Less time on the road = less chance of accident happening.

Now, to the next issue: How to survive the higher speed if accidents inevitably happens.....(watch this space.....keep watching....)

[Tank]

But they're not enforced with such blind vigour. If traffic is flowing nicely, the police wont nick everyone for 'speeding'.

Thats the 'good 'ol days' - these days they dont need to police them - its all done by cameras (and worse), average speed cameras (calculating your speed over x period) - hell they have one camera that clicked over 38,000 'speeders' placed where the motorway reverts to a dual-carriageway and is subject to a 50mph limit.

You do 100 MPH now - And I really cannot believe that you would not get pulled over.

[Tank]

You can't compare Europe with here. The skillsets of drivers here are completely different to those of european drivers.

A lot of Europe are considerably worse drivers than NZ - by a margin. Its not all driving Gods from Germany - you get Polacks who have never gone over 20km in their car or people from Portugal who simply scare teh shit out of you on the roads over there.