Top road cop calls Easter road toll 'heartbreaking'

Tuesday, 3 April 2018

National road policing manager Superintendent Steve Greally thinks Kiwis become competitive on the roads.

National road policing manager Superintendent Steve Greally struggles to find the right word to describe the number of deaths on the roads so far this year.

'Last year I used the word appalling but this year I'm struggling, perhaps the right word is heartbreaking.'

Two young Hamilton boys died in a crash on the Desert Road on Good Friday.

Not long before the Easter holiday period finished a fatal crash in Northland took the official road toll to six.

Two people died on SH10 south of Kerikeri in a head on collision shortly after 11 on Monday night. Two other people were taken to Bay of Islands hospital with minor injuries.

* Two killed, two injured in head-on car crash near Kerikeri, Northland**

Greally points out the crashes aren't just a number, they're real people losing family members.

'Families never get over this sort of thing. In some cases they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, how do you reconcile that?'

According to the New Zealand Transport Agency's road death statistics, 103 people have died between January and March this year compared to 86 for the same time last year.

Greally thinks it's time Kiwis stopped pointing the finger at international drivers and started looking at their own driving.

'Ninety-four per cent of crashes are caused by Kiwis, the problem is the way we drive on the roads.'

He thinks one problem could be our competitive nature.

'For some people it seems being second in queue isn't OK and they've got to get to their destination as quick as they can.'

But Greally points out driving at the wrong speed in the wrong conditions means physics will catch up with you.

'We've lost two people in Kerikeri who were here at the beginning of Easter, they had plans. They could have been planning to get married, take an overseas trip. Now none of that will happen.'

Several crashes also took place on Good Friday including a horror smash that took the lives of two young children.

Four-year-old Arteen Mosaferi died at the scene of the crash on the Desert Rd. His two-month-old brother Radeen died at Starship Hospital on Sunday from his injuries. Their mother, Dr Mohadeseh Sharifi, is in a critical condition at Waikato Hospital.

Their father suffered moderate injuries.