FastAndSafe :: Facts & Myths

Injury Trends
Fact	LTSA & Police Myth
ACC claim data confirms that traffic injuries have trended up sharply since the Highway Patrol and rigid enforcement of speed limits were introduced in Dec 2000.	Injuries are decreasing but police are reporting more of them!
8 September 2004 Dear Sir, I was looking at the crash statistics for the past few years and couldn't help noticing that the number of injury crashes has increased since 2000. Before 2000 the trend was largely downward. (In line with the rest of the world). Also since 2000 your efforts to concentrate on reducing speeding among drivers has increased (and has indeed been effective, judging by the mean road speeds) but despite an actual slowing of traffic, the injury crash rate has increased (and it's no use pointing out that a few less were killed...there were 3000 more injuries in 2002 than in 2000, more than aquarter more (26%) This seems to imply that your efforts to reduce speeding are at best misguided and at worst, positively dangerous. This is of course contrary to the official line. I would very much like to hear your rebuttal of these facts, as it seems that you are "barking up the wrong tree" , and at your guidance, the police are now spending an inordinate amount of time making offenders of ordinary New Zealanders who are guilty of nothing more than wanting to get to their destinations quicker. Regards bob
	8 October 2004 Dear Bob .... I am writing in reply to your email of 8 September about road crash statistics. The LTSA and its road safety partners are very keen to obtain the greatest amount of information they possibly can on the crashes that are happening on the highways, in order to be able to improve their ability to apply remedies to those locations where crashes are occurring. As part of the continuing improvement of crash data availability, the Police are encouraged to report as many crashes as possible, and there has been an improvement in this aspect in recent years. It is therefore no surprise that the number of injury crashes reported by the Police has also increased in the last few years. There are other ways of looking at road crash casualties, including the number of people hospitalised as a result of road crashes. Unfortunately these numbers have similar problems with the reliability of the data, due to changes in hospital admissions criteria which have occurred in recent years, particularly in the Auckland Region. For this reason the best indicator of progress in this area is the number of road crash casualties hospitalised for more than 1 day, which has steadily decreased by 5-6% each year since 1994. Speed is indeed an important factor in road crashes, but certainly not the only factor. I would draw your attention to the LTSA'a website at www.ltsa.govt.nz which provides statistics and commentary on the major factors contributing to crashes, including speed. I apologise for the delay in responding to your message. Yours sincerely W J Frith Manager Research and Statistics LTSA

Yet the true facts are quickly confirmed after a few minutes on Google and give the lie to the above typical self-serving misinformation from LTSA:

From the New Zealand Accident Compensation Commission website statistical data:

Section 8. Motor Vehicle Account

Number of Claims Paid from Entitlement Category for New Entitlement Claims

Number of Claims Paid from Medical Fees Category for New Entitlement Claims

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