Fatalities on Rodney roads during 2008 were the lowest on record since 1981. As shown below the number of deaths on roads has decreased steadily since 2005, when 23 fatalities were recorded:
|
2008 |
9 |
9 |
|
2007 |
11 |
13 |
|
2006 |
16 |
19 |
Rodney Police are attributing the decrease in fatalities to the combined road safety activities of Rodney District Council, the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA), ACC, the Police and other key stakeholders.
“We are extremely pleased to have been able to work together to make such a significant reduction in the road toll in Rodney District,” says Orewa Police Sergeant Mark Ovington.
“When we compare the 2008 road toll with what it was only three years ago, it is highly rewarding to think that fourteen fewer families had to deal with the trauma of losing a loved one last year than at that time.”
However, Sergeant Ovington says the Police and its partners recognise that even one death is too many and they will continue to work to reduce the number of fatalities on local roads.
The Police, Rodney District Council, NZTA, ACC and other stakeholders have been working together to identify the causes of road safety crashes in the District and introduce measures to reduce fatalities.
“We developed a Road Safety action plan which addressed the causes of crashes and have used a combination of measures to reduce crash statistics,” says Jacki Dawson, Rodney Road Safety Coordinator.
“These include driver education, cracking down on dangerous driving and developing engineering initiatives to improve road safety,” she says.
An example of a recent initiative which has proven highly successful has been the installation of vehicle activated signs on Whangaparaoa Road which light up to warn motorists that they are exceeding the speed limit. Prior to the introduction of the signs, an average of 60 crashes per year were recorded on this road between 2002 and 2007. After the signs were installed, the number of crashes has been reduced to 45. Average speeds on the road have also dropped by 5km per hour.
Other successful road safety initiatives include Operation Persist which targeted drink drivers and resulted in significant reductions in the number of drink drivers caught over a three month period in late 2008. By Christmas the number of drunk drivers caught was reduced to zero when 300 motorists were stopped at checkpoint and all of them were found to be sober, which was an excellent start to the holiday season.
The population of Rodney District has increased by nearly 60,000 residents since 1981, when a single digit road toll was last recorded.