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hamish mcneilly / Things
The road toll for 2020 exceeded 300 deaths for the sixth year in a row, with many of the crashes occurring in older, unsafe cars. (File photo)
The government is considering new steps to get hundreds of thousands of less safe cars off New Zealand’s roads, including making it more expensive to bring them into the country.
Documents obtained under the Official Information Law show that the Waka Kotahi NZ Transportation Agency is evaluating a series of measures to divert the country from its dependence on a car with low safety ratings, which are disproportionately involved in fatal accidents. and harmful.
These include imposing large import duties on cars that have a safety rating of less than three stars and offering rental vehicles to low-income families who drive old drawers.
It comes as the final road toll for 2020 of 320 deaths was described as “sad and disappointing”, virtually unchanged from 2019 after the effect of the Covid-19 lockdown is taken into account.
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John Bisset / Stuff
More than half of the serious injuries and deaths in traffic accidents occurred in cars with a 1 or 2 star safety rating. (File photo)
Mike Noon from the Automobile Association said New Zealand needed to take a serious look at the number of unsafe older vehicles being imported.
“We are importing cars to New Zealand that cannot be shipped to Africa,” he said.
“A lot of the cars we buy in Japan don’t have much competition, because nobody else wants them.”
Noon said he wanted the government to adopt a full fleet strategy to reduce the number of unsafe vehicles on the road.
“We have to think about how we want the fleet to look in five, 10, 20 years because everything we bring in today will be with us for the next 20 years. Our fleet is aging and the safety features are just not on older cars, which means you have a much higher risk of injury in an accident, “he said.
Figures from Waka Kotahi reveal a disproportionate number of fatal accidents in vehicles with a 1 and 2 star safety rating.
In the five years to the end of 2019, more than half of all drivers involved in a fatal or seriously injured accident were driving in a less safe place. This is despite the fact that these vehicles make up only 41 percent of the vehicles on the road.
These less safe cars were also less likely to have a fitness clearance, with 64 percent of all unauthorized vehicles being considered less safe.
Previously, the government had proposed a ban on all imports of 1 and 2-star vehicles, which would have blocked some of New Zealand’s most popular models, including the Mazda Demio, and all Suzuki Swift pre-2016.
However, the documents show that this idea seems to have been abandoned in favor of approaches such as higher fees and more education.
Warwick Smith / Stuff
New Zealand has an older vehicle fleet than Australia, Canada or the United States, which has contributed to our death toll.
A spokesman for Waka Kotahi said the agency was focused on changes that would not need to go through parliament.
“The ideas were drawn from a number of sources who were asked to ‘think outside the square.’ The board wanted to consider initiatives that could be initiated directly by Waka Kotahi without requiring legislative or regulatory changes, ”said a spokesperson.
The agency is also considering a three-year pilot to replace vehicles in low-income households with ex-rentals. The proposed social vehicle leasing scheme would target people who may be at risk of financial stress due to auto loans, maintenance costs or high operating costs, as well as reduced access to safe and clean vehicles.
Several policy changes are also being considered to ensure that vehicles sold to junkyards need to be dismantled, rather than repaired and put back into operation.
The average age of a car in New Zealand is 14.5 years, one of the oldest in the OECD.
