Steering wheel tags with road safety tips for visiting drivers will do little or nothing to lower the tourist road toll, says a prominent road safety campaigner.
Clive Matthew-Wilson editor of the car review website dogandlemon.com, says:
“How do steering wheel tags stop a driver falling asleep at the wheel? How do steering wheel tags make up for a basic lack of skill by a tourist driver? How do steering wheel tags solve the problem that many tourists from the Indian subcontinent see life or death as a matter of karma?”
Matthew-Wilson adds:
“In a way, these steering wheel tags are worse than doing nothing, because they give the illusion that the government is doing something about tourist accidents, when in fact this strategy will do little or nothing to stop the high risk groups renting cars and then crashing.”
Matthew-Wilson gave the example of Hong Kong national Shu Na Lo, 27, who recently killed his mother and seriously injured his sister after falling asleep behind the wheel of a rental car he had hired directly after arriving from a flight from Melbourne on September 30.
“Would a steering wheel tag have prevented this accident? Of course not. Even assuming that the driver of that car could understand the meaning of the safety messages after a long flight from another country, he clearly thought he was safe to be behind the wheel of a car.”
Matthew-Wilson believes there needs to be a clear ban on tourists driving vehicles for 24 hours after they arrive.
“Driving tired is as dangerous as driving drunk. Rental car firms would not be allowed to rent a car to a drunk driver, but are allowed to rent a car to a traveller who’s liable to fall asleep and kill someone. This is just wrong.”
Matthew-Wilson also believes all drivers – including New Zealanders – should pass a simple, computer-based competency test before being allowed to rent vehicles.
“The rental industry needs to weed out the bad drivers and unsafe vehicles. The government needs to fix up our rural roads, so simple mistakes don't turn into fatalities. Until these problems are fixed, there will be no real change to ongoing stream of serious accidents involving tourists."
"Tourist accidents are a small part of the road toll, but that’s no comfort to the families of those who have died unnecessarily.”
