New Zealand is a beautiful place, and we get around a million tourists visiting our shores every year. We’re happy to have them too, not least because they support nearly 6% of our workforce and contribute roughly 4% of our GDP every year. But there is a dark side to having these wonderful visitors holiday here, and it’s to do with the number of serious crashes caused by, or involving tourists. You only need to pick up the paper to read about a recent crash that’s involved a foreign driver.
A Dutch driver was remanded on bail on recently, charged with causing a crash that killed two 12 year old girls and one of the girls' mother. On Queen’s Birthday weekend there were 5 road deaths, 4 of which involved foreign drivers. Then there’s nine year old Sean Roberts, whose father was killed in a crash caused by a foreign driver in 2012. He started a petition to Gerry Brownlee, Minister of Transport, requesting that foreign drivers be required to undertake an online test before they can drive in the country. The petition has had over 25,000 signatures as of 24/06/14.
Said one former rental car company owner: "I have just stepped away from my ten years of managing car rental companies here in New Zealand. I simply refused to feel responsible for handing over the keys to tourists who, time after time, end up killing themselves and taking out New Zealanders in the process. Week in, week out, lives are taken unnecessarily at the hands of inexperienced foreign drivers. It has to stop."
The government has indicated that it will not legislate for mandatory driver training. It has obligations under a United Nations convention on driving which guarantees foreign drivers the right to drive in New Zealand with an International License or foreign country license. If mandatory driver training were to be regulated New Zealand drivers may then lose the ability to drive overseas on a New Zealand license. Rather than legislate for training, they’ve provided an online road code quiz, and a short instructional video which has been produced with Chinese tourists as its main target.
We at Fleetcoach are certain that more can be done, and we believe that tourists will be keen to do what they can to keep themselves safe on our roads. We think foreign drivers don’t set out to be a risk, and that they’ll embrace effective and short training if it’s offered. A number of factors are likely to be involved with this issue, including lack of awareness of the road rules, being faced with new roading conditions and many distractions, a limited amount of experience in their home country, and the illusion that driving here is safer due to the lower population and wide open roads.
We believe that the Fleetcoach evidence-based online approach is the answer to all of this, and our real-world driver training simulations will be a perfect way of teaching the necessary skills.
If you’d like to talk to us about this project please get in touch. Whether you’re from a rental car company, an insurance company, regional council or simply can see a way you might be able to contribute, we’d love to hear from you.
We believe something can be done.
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