Crash survivor says we shouldn't use the term 'road toll'

Thursday, 21 December 2017

Road Traffic Accident Trauma Charitable Trust founder Sarah Dean, who was in two serious crashes within 10 months, says the term should be humanised.

A car crash survivor says the 'road toll' should be called 'human cost' to humanise the term.

Earlier this year the police described New Zealand's roads as 'battle zones'. In December the nation's road toll had already reached 362 for the year, 35 more than 2016 which was the deadliest year on New Zealand roads since at least 2011.

In October police described New Zealand's roads as 'battle zones'.

Despite efforts from the police, Government and other organisations the amount of road deaths hadn't improved and changing the wording could help, advocates said.

Road Traffic Accident Trauma Charitable Trust founder Sarah Dean survived two serious car crashes within the space of 10 months and now works closely with families who have had road incidents.

Victoria University emeritus professor of linguistics Laurie Bauer says any change from road toll could have a shock value.

* Major changes needed to keep soaring road toll in check

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The term needed to be humanised and the 'human cost of road crashes' was an alternative she put forward, Dean said.

'Human cost would resonate with the general public,' she said.

It would personalise the tragedy for families of lost loved ones, and was a way to humanise the effects of the road toll to the public, she said.

National road safety charity Brake New Zealand director Caroline Perry said language was important when talking about road safety.

The charity works to prevent road deaths and injuries and support people bereaved and injured in crashes.

'We and many other advocates use the term 'crash' rather than 'accident',' Perry said.

'Because we believe crashes are not chance mishaps, they are preventable and we can stop them.

'We have heard it said that 'road toll' suggests that it's simply the price we pay for our mobility, and that that's acceptable. No death on the road is acceptable and we must do more to reverse the current increase in road deaths.'

Police assistant commissioner of road policing Sandra Venables said when it talked about road safety it talked about people, not about numbers or the toll.

'We want people to understand the lives lost behind those numbers, and the families and communities who are left devastated and heartbroken by grief and loss,' Venables said.

'We tend to use the word death as that is a true description of what has been lost – a life.'

No One Ever Stands Alone chief executive Leah Abrams said the wording should be aligned with the United Nations' terminology as it was important to measure and evaluate statistics in comparison to other countries.

'The terminology such as 'road fatality' is the universal one,' Abrams said.

'And as much as it doesn't make it easy for the victims families, no terminology will be ever be easy for a family member that has lost a loved one.

'We can be better in focusing on the suggested causes of the road fatality to highlight whether it was fatigue, alcohol, speed, careless driving or drugs so that the actual issues that cause the fatalities can be highlighted.'

Victoria University emeritus professor of linguistics Laurie Bauer said any change from road toll, for instance to 'traffic death tally' could have a shock value, but if it were consistently used it would lose that value and be no different from road toll.

Finding the right term would be the problem, but even if you found one, the effect would not last, he said.

Road toll was a nice compact two syllables whereas traffic death tally was too clumsy, 'blood cost' was another option, he said.

'[But] the reality remains the same, whatever words are used to describe it.'

The official holiday period will begin at 4pm on December 22 and end at 6am on January 3.