Slow down and buckle up message behind regional road safety collaboration
Last modified: 10 Nov 2023 1:15pm
Watch your speed, and wear your seatbelt are everyday road safety messages that take on extra resonance in Canterbury this month.
The region is the focus of road safety activities aimed at enhancing the collaboration of local councils with police to achieve better driver behaviour.
Canterbury Police will be running a “spot and stop” policy across Canterbury through November, including in Selwyn, in which drivers are pulled over if detected speeding, and checks carried out to see if they and their passengers are also wearing seatbelt.
Inspector Natasha Rodley, Road Policing Manager for Canterbury, says the activity will target district-wide areas and events throughout November, to reinforce the need for drivers to take responsibility for their safety and that of their passengers when behind the wheel, ahead of the busy Christmas/New Year holiday period.
Police will also share a flyer with drivers explaining why even travelling just one to 10 kilometres over the speed limit is unnecessarily risky, and how essential it is to use seatbelts at all times when riding in a vehicle.
“As we head toward the end of the year, people can get distracted thinking about Christmas and holidays coming up. The tendency to rush and not pay attention to your speed can pose a risk to you and others on the roads. We know that even low-level speeding will have a significant effect on the outcome of a crash and the injuries received.”
“Wearing a seatbelt increases the chances of surviving a crash by 40%,” Ms Rodley says.
Speed is one of biggest contributing factors to road deaths and serious injuries in Canterbury, with one in five fatalities in the district from 2018–2022 attributed to excessive speed, a more common cause of deaths than alcohol (11.9%), distraction (4%) and fatigue (4.2%).
Over the same period there were 47 deaths and 82 serious injuries where restraints were not worn.