http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,335 ... 60,00.html
Road campaign stresses conditions
22 July 2005
By KIM RUSCOE
A new $550,000 road safety campaign will urge drivers to keep to a speed safe for prevailing conditions rather than aiming for the maximum speed limit.
Launched by Transport Safety Minister Harry Duynhoven at Parliament yesterday, the campaign will run for 12 months and will feature roadside billboards and radio jingles with up-to-the-minute road condition messages, he said.
There was a perception drivers were safe if they stuck to the 100km/h speed limit on open roads and 50kmh in town, he said.
"Nothing could be further from the truth...100kmh is clearly not a safe speed to be travelling on narrow, winding steep roads with poor visibility."
Drivers must be firmly in control of the vehicles at all times and had to be able to effectively deal with unexpected occurrences such as wandering livestock, slips and washouts on the open road, and children, cyclists and pedestrians in the city, Mr Duynhoven said.
"If you are driving at a speed where you cannot stop with the distance that you can see ahead, your are driving too fast," he said.
"Drivers need to slow down under such conditions, not because they risk getting a speeding ticket but because they risk death or serious injury to themselves and others."
Although mean speeds had fallen dramatically over the past five years, many fatal crashes were caused by driving too fast for the conditions, Mr Duynhoven said.
Assistant police commissioner Peter Marshall said he had no doubt the campaign would succeed in making highways safer.
He said speed limits were important but so were the weather, road conditions and the experience and health of the driver.
Speed was not thought to have been a factor in New Zealand's second worst road crash - in which nine people were killed when a van crashed into a truck near Morrinsville in May - but the weather was atrocious, with high winds and heavy rain.
The campaign is being funded by the Accident Compensation Corporation.
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