Motor vehicle crashes

National strategy: Road Safety to 2010

The past decade has seen a steady improvement in New Zealand's road safety performance. Every year, however, hundreds of people are still killed and thousands are seriously injured on New Zealand's roads.

Background and Relevant Strategies Agencies involved Key road safety resources

Background and Relevant Strategies

Road crashes, by their nature, tend to produce often traumatic and long-lasting injuries, which can have equally long-lasting social and economic consequences.

New Zealand Transport Strategy

The New Zealand Transport Strategy sets out the government's vision for transport. It is a statement on the approach government will take to transport now and in the future.

Road Safety to 2010 Strategy

The Road Safety to 2010 Strategy was released in October 2003 and is an important component of achieving the overarching New Zealand Transport Strategy's goal of an "affordable, integrated, safe, responsive and sustainable transport system".

The Strategy provides a direction for road safety in New Zealand and describes the results the government wants to achieve by 2010. In summary, the Road Safety to 2010 Strategy sets out:

  • A balanced approach of 'engineering, education, and enforcement' initiatives;
  • The first set of initiatives to be implemented (to June 2004);
  • The co-ordination, funding and other mechanisms to implement the Strategy;
  • The priority areas of focus up to 2010.
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Agencies involved

The implementation of the Road Safety to 2010 Strategy is being overseen by the Minister of Transport and monitored by the National Road Safety Committee, which comprises the chief executives of:

  • Accident Compensation Corporation
    - preventing and managing motor vehicle injury through the Motor Vehicle Account, funding specific road safety initiatives and leading implementation of the New Zealand Injury Prevention Strategy.
  • Land Transport New Zealand
    - regulating and managing road safety, including administering the New Zealand Road Safety Programme, which funds and manages road policing, and safety education and strategic services.
  • Local Government New Zealand
    - representing 12 regional council areas and 74 territorial and local authorities, whose regional land transport strategies integrate safety into regional transport planning, and whose local land transport programmes manage the safety maintenance and improvement of local road networks.
  • Ministry of Transport
    - leading policy advice to government and preparing and managing road safety legislation.
  • New Zealand Police
    - policing New Zealand's road network, funded and managed through the New Zealand Road Safety Programme.
  • Transit New Zealand
    - managing the safety maintenance and improvement of the state highway network through the State Highway Programme.
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Key road safety resources

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