We can reduce the road toll by copying Sweden

Friday, 1 June 2018

Sweden has less road deaths than New Zealand, despite a higher population, writes Måns Andersson.

OPINION: In 2017 New Zealand had 380 road deaths.

In comparison, 254 people were killed on the roads in Sweden in the same year. Sweden has a population of roughly double New Zealand's. That makes New Zealand's roads about three times as deadly.

This despite Sweden having a much harsher and darker climate with snowy and icy roads several months per year. Drivers there also have to be cautious of collisions with wild animals like moose, boar and deer.

**READ MORE:

* Are NZ roads death traps?

* Auckland's rampant road toll out of sync with the rest of New Zealand

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

Collision impact severity graph. On the X-axis is the speed in km/h.

Why is Sweden so much better on road safety then?

In 1997 the Swedish Transport Administration stated the so-called Zero Vision:

The starting point for zero vision is the ethical stance that nobody should be killed or injured seriously in traffic. It should be easy to do right in traffic and mistakes should not be punished with death. Roads, streets and vehicles should be adapted and designed according to human conditions. The responsibility for road safety is shared between those who design and those who use the transport system. The designers have the ultimate responsibility for safety.

New Zealand must invest more money in safer roads, but much can be done without any cost. Do as the Swedes have done. You don’t have to invent the wheel again.

Above is an impact severity graph from Swedish road statistics that shows the risk in percentage of getting killed in three different collision types.

As you can see a head-on collision in 100km/h will in around 98 per cent of the cases lead to death. In 70 km/h only 10 per cent of the cases lead to death.

Some core ideas from the Swedish Zero Vision with little to no cost to New Zealand taxpayers that can be applied now:

1. All 100 km/h roads today (those not having median barriers) must be labelled for 70 km/h, preferably with speed cameras. The speed cameras could be configured to measure not just one by one, they could also be synchronised to measure over longer distances. Mistakes happen more often when you drive in 100km/h and the consequences are much worse as well as the impact severity graph shows.

2. Make it mandatory to have the headlights turned on all the time. From US statistics: While daytime headlight usage reduces the number of two vehicle crashes by 5.7 per cent, it also results in the reduction of pedestrian accidents by 12 per cent and a 23 per cent reduction in motorcycle accidents involving vehicles coming from the other direction.

3. In the cities, the speed must go down as well. Where cars, pedestrians and bicycles are sharing the roads, 40 km/h is implemented in Sweden. School zones are 30 km/h. As the impact severity graph shows: 8 out 10 pedestrians die when they get hit by a car in 50km/h and “only” 1 out of 10 dies at 30 km/h.

4. Increase the level of the theoretical parts regarding road safety when taking the driver licence.

New Zealand must invest more money in safer roads, but much can be done without any cost, writes Måns Andersson.

5. Increase the driver licence age to 18 years old.

6. Don’t turn your kid’s car safety seat forward until after they are 4-5 years old - there are larger seat models.

Here are some long-term investments, which will cost tax dollars:

7. Build wire median barriers on the existing roads. Speeds here could be up to 100 km/h if there are no trees etc along the sides. Still it’s quite a cheap investment for the increased road safety.

8. Build real highways where the roads are even more separated. These roads can easily have a speed limit of 120 km/h and still be very safe.

So why is New Zealand still behind in road safety then? Points 1-6 do not involve any large amount of money.

This knowledge should be available to the Ministry of Transport and NZ Transport Agency, and lack of money is no excuse for not acting.

The social and economic costs for all the deaths and injured are huge. It will finally also hit the tourism industry when the New Zealand gets labelled as dangerous. Who wants to risk getting killed during their holiday?

Sweden has a lot of other drawbacks but on road safety, Sweden is the leading country.

Måns Andersson is a Swede living in New Zealand