About Us
Who are we?
South Canterbury Road Safety is the name under which the Timaru-, Waimate-, and Mackenzie District Councils support road safety for the whole district.
Role of the Road Safety Coordinator
South Canterbury Road Safety (SCRS) is tasked with promoting and educating the community regarding road safety. It is our aim to reduce the amount of incidences of road trauma and crashes throughout South Canterbury. We work closely with other road safety partners to achieve this goal.
This work is carried out by the South Canterbury Road Safety Coordinator (RSC). The primary responsibility of this position is to coordinate the efforts of key road safety organisations and community groups throughout the District. There is no charge for this service.
The role of the RSC has evolved rapidly over the past decade. Coordinators now have an integral role in reducing road trauma in New Zealand and are appointed to coordinate, facilitate and manage local efforts to reduce identified road safety issues in their areas.
Community involvement is an essential component in achieving our road safety targets.
Our Vision
The South Canterbury Road Safety Coordination Committee meets every quarter to discuss strategies to reduce the road toll. On this committee there are representatives from all three District Councils, NZTA, Police, ACC, Ecan, AA, NZRTA and the SC Road Safety Council.
The vision of SCRS is called "Vision Zero" - "There will be no injury crashes on South Canterbury roads"
We believe that unless you work towards a zero target, you will have to answer the following question:
"Who are we willing to sacrifice in order to reach our target of x ?"
In 2009 the Government has started a new road safety strategy called "Safer Journeys 2020" with the following vision:
"A safe road system increasingly free of death and serious injury".
This new strategy is based on a Safe Systems approach. This means that we have to acknowledge that:
- People make mistakes and crashes are inevitable
- The human body has limitations on what forces it can withstand in a crash
- The responsibility must be shared to manage crashes that it does not result in death or serious injury
Performance
The way it’s is measured is in deaths or serious injuries per 100,000 population.
Nationally the 2008 rate is 10 deaths per 100,000 population. The worst performing country in the OECD was Greece at 14.9. Here in South Canterbury we stood at a shocking 18.51!
Currently for 2009 South Canterbury is at 3.7 - Great improvement!
For serious injuries the national rate for 2008 was 356 per 100,000 population. South Canterbury was 70.