In brief: 

• NZTA data shows speeding caused fewer than 1% of fatal crashes last year.

• Just 3 of 303 fatal crashes were solely due to speeding.

• 80% of speeding-related crashes involved drivers impaired by alcohol or drugs.

• Alcohol and drugs were the leading cause in 69% of all fatal crashes.

Click to read ‘Speed kills, or does it?’

Speed hardly a factor in fatal road crashes

New crash data released by NZTA reveals that exceeding the speed limit was the primary cause of fewer than 1% of fatal road crashes – far below the 34% figure trotted out in the media by Police and road safety campaigners.

Just three of 303 fatal crashes last year could be attributed only to speeding – in each of those cases the vehicle then lost control on a bend.

The official CAS (Crash Analysis System) statistics given to Centrist under the OIA show there were a further 12 fatal crashes coded to “exceeding the speed limit”, but Centrist analysis of those reveals there were other primary causes in all cases.

Four of the 12, for example, were drivers evading police, and a fifth was a deliberate hit and run. Of those five, one driver was drunk and three were under the influence of drugs. The hit and run driver was not impaired but police coded the excessive speed as criminal and intentional.

Of the seven remaining crashes where exceeding the speed limit was a “factor”, six appear to be primarily caused by driving under the influence of alcohol, drugs or both, while the seventh involved a pedestrian ignoring a school patrol and stepping into the path of a speeding motorbike.

What does all this mean?

Essentially, it appears that millions of dollars in anti-speeding campaigns against ordinary motorists may have reached their bang for buck limits. Drivers who were simply breaking the speed limit (and thus vulnerable to speed camera fines and radar) were involved in fewer than one percent of fatal crashes.

Instead, 80% of speeding drivers in fatal crashes were either out of it on booze or drugs (and thus irrational and largely immune to law enforcement presence or “speed kills” messaging) or homicidal.

So, if breaking the speed limit was only a factor in 15 out of 303 fatal crashes last year – a fraction under 5% – what were the biggest factors listed that deserve more police attention?

Alcohol and drugs are the real culprits

Unsurprisingly, alcohol and drugs are the single biggest cause of bad decisions and losing control, featuring in 209 of the 303 deadly crashes (69%). Of that 209, 88 were the drugs subcategory, meaning 29% of all fatal crashes involved driving under the influence of narcotics and 40% on alcohol.

If police are serious about the road toll it’s alcohol and drugs they need to target, but unfortunately that section of the community doesn’t pay fines and government revenue would take a massive hit if police stopped focusing on speeding taxpayers.

In 2023, Police attributed five fatal crashes to cellphone use, but drilling down only two were primarily caused by phone use and the remaining three involved drunk or drugged drivers.

Fatigue was a factor in 25 crashes (8%), often as a result of alcohol use.

Bad positioning on the road, usually a cofactor with alcohol and drug impairment, was involved in 97 fatal crashes (32%), while losing control was listed in 84 – again strongly associated with impairment.

Road conditions, design and maintenance were factors in 74 fatal crashes (24%) but again drunk and drugged drivers were less likely to handle them.

Not paying attention was a factor in 46 crashes (15%), but again DUI drivers were the bulk which indicates just how much alcohol impacts driving.

Inappropriate speed for the conditions was a factor in seven fatals, but three of those involved impaired drivers. The remaining four involved cars suddenly finding themselves on loose gravel or slippery tarmac, some having ignored roadworks signs but in one case the roadworks lacked signage and in another it was just a slippery road.

Going into a corner too fast contributed to 40 fatal crashes but (you guessed it) mostly as a consequence of driving drugged or drunk.