Road crashes increasing, injuries increasing, lack of seat belts to blame

Tuesday, 8 May 2018

St John ambulances attended nearly 20,000 road crashes in New Zealand last year and that number is growing.

The alarming increase in totals reinforces the importance of road safety messages for drivers, Head of Clinical Control Services Douglas Gallagher said.

'As an ambulance service we're often first to arrive on scene, so we see first-hand the devastating impact of crashes, and deal with extremely traumatic injuries,' Gallagher said. 

'Too often fatalities and serious or critical injuries occur where people aren't wearing seatbelts.' 

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In 12 months, St John statistics show officers attend an average of 1626 road-related incidents per month. 

Road crashes are the most common, above all other types of incident. 

The total number of crashes, from April 2017 to March 2018, is 20,303, an increase from 18,728 the year prior.

'The percentage of patients with critical injuries compared to the percentage with mild and moderate injuries is not changing,' Gallagher said.

'Often the people involved are innocent parties who were otherwise just going about their business. Sadly, we find children in ill-fitting car seats or with no seatbelts or car seats at all.'

Seatbelts and distractions are the theme for national Road Safety Week, running May 7 to 13. 

A theme that St John whole-heartedly supports. 

'Our message is to be vigilant about wearing seatbelts no matter where you're driving and always check to make sure children are properly fastened in,' Gallagher said.

St John is a charity that raises 25 percent or $70m of its annual operating budget every year.