This should raise a few temperatures around here...

[rainman]

NZ speed limits too high for the roads - police

Posted at 11:08am on 03 Jan 2008

The police say New Zealand's speed limits are too high for its roads after an increase in the total road toll for 2007.

The 2007 road toll was 423 deaths, up 29 on 2006 which was a 40-year low.

Seventeen people died on the roads during the latest official holiday period, which ended at 6am on Thursday.

National operations manager for road policing, Inspector Carey Griffiths says New Zealand speed limits are too high for the roads.

He says the New Zealand roading network is unforgiving compared to international standards.

Copyright © 2007 Radio New Zealand

[sAsLEX]

Explain 2006 then!?


More speed limits have reduced since then and the toll goes up. Looking at that data we need to undo these reductions to fix the road code!

[Colapop]

The speed limit should be no more than 10kph. Then the only death toll we'd have would be from heart attacks behind the wheel. Perhaps there'd also be cobweb poisoning...

[Smokin]

I've noticed that the "road toll" seems to be a very broard term, Has it always included quad bikes and motox bike related deaths that happen off formed roads?

It strikes me a bit like ACC levies on bike rego, all motorcycle injuries contribute to the higher rego levies yet a fairly high percentage of those injuries are not from road registered bikes, ie quads and trail bikes.

[The Pastor]

bikes are dangerous, ive said it before.

[Storm]

So what they are saying is fix the roads and we'd be sweet?

I see no reason to get hot and bothered by that

Oh and whilst fixing the road surface -get rid of the %^##& cheesecutters!

(ok, maybe a couple degrees there)

[The Pastor]

we knew they were wanting to lower the national speed limit, we went to the meetings.

[trumpy]

Didn't work before why should it work now?
The road toll figure cannot be taken at face value, it needs to be measured against vehicle movements. Given the increase of such over the last year, by their own admission, if you do this the toll is roughly the same as the previous year.
Farking public servants!! Trust them not!!

[The Pastor]

What? common sence? get out!

We need to have more traffic cops and give out more tickets, ITS THE ONLY WAY!

[Hitcher]

It's the silly season. Apart from the road toll and church-fulls of people being incinerated in Kenya, there is nothing else happening apart from cricket. As long as policy-makers and others who don't understand statistics or actuarial risk don't have a mental infarction, all should be well.

[swbarnett]

The speed limit should be no more than 10kph. Then the only death toll we'd have would be from heart attacks behind the wheel. Perhaps there'd also be cobweb poisoning...

Actually, I think the toll would go up. What driver is going to be awake after half an hour of 10km/h?

[swbarnett]

You can't compare two figures and come up with anything meaningfull. If they were really interested in finding out if a prticular measure actually worked they'd only change one thing every 5 to 10 years and quote road toll figures as trend lines in KSI per km travelled.

[FJRider]

It strikes me a bit like ACC levies on bike rego, all motorcycle injuries contribute to the higher rego levies yet a fairly high percentage of those injuries are not from road registered bikes, ie quads and trail bikes.

YOU'VE JUST FIGURED THAT OUT ??? ACC's statistics do NOT list, on road or off road numbers, it does not matter to them. THEY ARE ALL MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENTS. Thus they charge levies where they can. To those that HAVE to pay, or no rego. LOGICAL eh!!!

[mowgli]

Seems to me that it's not the speed limit that's too high, it's the increasing horse power available to inexperienced drivers! The graduated scheme should include a power limit for cages like it does for bikers. That would fix a lot of things.

[Grahameeboy]

Lets see more cars on roads must mean that we may have a few more fatalities...........

Registered Vehicles - 2006 was 3,226,614 so up 2.42%
Registered Vehicles - 2005 was 3.150,253

Number of Fatalities up 7.36%. Now that would include that freak accident involving the camper van where 4 were killed.

So it is the roads that are to blame not the drivers then? What happened to drive to the conditions etc.

Basically this country has shit drivers who are badly educated. The speed limit is 50k in town and then 100 out of town so when they get out of town they go nuts.