Greens call for zero road toll goal

The New Zealand Green Party is calling for the next government to commit to a goal of zero deaths on the road. There have been 282 road deaths this year, 38 more than this time last year. Road deaths have been trending upwards since 2013 when a total of 253 people were killed for the full year. Road deaths in heavy vehicle crashes have also spiked upwards to levels not seen since 2007. “New Zealand is heading towards its fourth consecutive rise in the road toll this year despite record spending on our roads,” said Green Party transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter. “Too many people are dying on our roads despite our cars getting safer and our speeds getting slower. Genter references the Vision Zero project, an initiative that began following approval from the Swedish parliament in 1997. Vision Zero aims to take an approach to road safety that dictates that preservation of human life is paramount, rather than traditional cost-benefit approaches that place a monetary value on the loss of life, and use that as an input to decide how much to invest in road safety. Genter says that the incumbent National government has spent too much on the Roads of National Significance programme, while ignoring rising road fatalities.  “Road deaths involving heavy vehicles have been rising rapidly, up 63 per cent since 2013. A commitment by government to moving greater amounts of freight by rail and sea would help save lives on our roads,” said Genter.