Holiday highway toll: Otago suffers worst fatality rate since 2007

Clutha resident Stephen Woodhead is calling for the community to reconsider road safety after the latest in a “devastating” series of 25 road deaths in Otago.

He urged drivers and other members of the community to “think hard about our driving behavior.”

“What are the opportunities to remove risks from the system?” I ask

A 17-year-old girl, believed to be from South Otago, was seriously injured in a two-car accident south of Balclutha on December 5 and died in Dunedin Hospital on December 26.

“Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones at this difficult time,” a police spokesman said yesterday.

Investigations into the circumstances of the accident are continuing, police said.

Woodhead, who farms in South Otago and is a former Otago Regional Council president, said the latest death was also a tragic loss for everyone involved.

“It is clearly devastating for family and friends,” he said.

The death of so many people, including young people with “so much potential in front of them that is lost in our community”, was particularly concerning.

Before the latest death, 24 people had died on the roads of Otago this year, the most since 2007, when 24 also died.

Otago’s lowest annual road death toll in decades was 11 in 2009, and the highest was 43 in 1988.

Woodhead said it was ironic that New Zealanders worked together to counter the Covid-19 threat and “coped with it very well” and that only 25 people have died from the pandemic nationwide.

It was disappointing that 25 people died from traffic accidents in Otago this year alone, and at least 11 other people died in Southland.

It seemed contradictory that so many people had died in Otago, when the closure in the first half of the year had reduced the number of drivers and there were fewer drivers on the roads because foreign tourists could not enter the country.

He knew nothing about the circumstances of the December 5 accident and was not sure why the deaths on the Otago highway had skyrocketed this year.

All drivers had to take individual responsibility and others could also play a valuable role in supporting and promoting safe driving.

Such steps could include offering accommodation to visiting drivers who may be tired and unsafe to drive.

There was a “traumatic shock” when things went wrong, and he urged everyone to “be a little more careful and get home safely.”