Improving driver safety on bends is the focus of a new road safety campaign in Rodney District.
Rodney District Council will be running a competition over the next few weeks to encourage residents to identify pictures of bends in Rodney District which have the highest rate of crashes in Rodney.
Residents who successfully identify the four bends featured in the Council’s ads will go into the draw to win a defensive driving course to improve their driving skills. Entries close on 11 June 2009. People can also take part in the competition online here.
The purpose of the campaign is to increase awareness about the need to be cautious when approaching bends, especially bends which have a high rate of vehicle crashes.
“Crashes on bends are the number one issue in Rodney District,” says Rodney Road Safety Coordinator Jacki Dawson.
“The district has a large rural roading network which has a number of sharp bends which should be approached cautiously. It’s really important that people slow down and observe the recommended speeds when taking corners or drive slower if the conditions require this.”
Statistics show that crashes on bends are usually the result of a driver losing control of their vehicle, and either running off the road, or colliding with another vehicle. After losing control the vehicle often crashes into road side hazards such as ditches, trees, banks or poles. Alcohol, poor handling, adverse road conditions and excessive speed for the conditions, or a combination of these factors, are the main characteristics of injury crashes at bends.
The campaign is one of many road safety initiatives that Rodney District Council has carried out with the Police and other agencies in recent years.
Mrs Dawson says that the recent media scrutiny of the effectiveness of road safety campaigns has not been fully informed.
“Here in Rodney, the Council has been working with the Police and other partner agencies over the past few years to reduce our road toll. The number of fatalities on Rodney Roads has reduced steadily as a result of these efforts from 23 in 2005 to 13 in 2007 and 9 in 2008.”
“Our collaborative approach has been to identify the main causes of crashes and develop strategies to reduce fatalities,” she says.
Mrs Dawson says that a number of road safety initiatives have been used to reduce crashes which include driver education, police enforcement campaigns and engineering measures to improve road safety.
The Council recently worked with Saatchi and Saatchi to develop an exhibition showing the effect of a head on collision at 125kms per hour which is equivalent to the impact of 10 grenades exploding.
Around 600 people visited the exhibit and when a sample of those attending were questioned about their future behaviour most said that they would rethink how fast they travelled as a result of seeing the display.
For further information and comment please contact:
Jacki Dawson
Rodney District Council
0800 426 5169
Jacqueline.dawson@rodney.govt.nz
For more information about the competition click here