Bo-Jangles

In the case of NZ I think the blame for poor driving standards does lie with the 'instructors' who are predominantly the parents; the bad 'habits' and attitude are passed on down the line and the problems would be halved if everyone was taught to drive by a professional.

Clappy

I don't think that we should overlook that the high road toll comes at the same time as the record high net migration figures International Travel and Migration: November 2016

It was very easy for me to obtain a driving licence in New Zealand - I just had to show them my British licence and demonstrate that I can see. At no time did I have to demonstrate that my driving skills were at a level in accordance with the,obviously superior, New Zealand standards.

Bloody foreigners.

People complaining about other drivers are one of those things that I have heard the world over.

Mrs Clappy (who is a Kiwi and hears me complain about the drivers here often) was quick to point out to me last week a social media rant about the drivers' behavior in Australia (by a British person with an Australian wife). There were people in England commenting that the same things happened in England too. I had to point out to Mrs Clappy that there are so many New Zealanders living in Australia now that it is no wonder the driving there is terrible.

Robbie2010

I'm sure this will boost safety on the roads no end ... Kiwi drivers will soon be able to Skype from their cars - Business - NZ Herald News

Charismatic

That a boy! Go get 'em.

Charismatic

All this will be lost forever once self-driving cars are permitted. We are living in a halcyon era for poor driving when technology is just advanced enough to distract you buy not advanced enought to do much that is useful.

mickey_d

My son has seen 3 of his friends buried in the last 4 years, 1 was racing, 1 was texting and 1 had been drinking, all under 21. A pretty bad stat for a fairly small circle of friends.

Robbie2010

Do you really think self drive cars are the answer when even the simple satnav seems to get it wrong and sometimes sends me the wrong way down one way streets or wants me to drive overgreen fields?

SSky

Stay calm on the roads folks, just keep a sharp eye out for under takers and over takers .. remember that any middle aged kiwi took maybe a day driving skills class at their school held by their local bobby and was handed their licence.
Remember that a large proportion only have their restricted and never went on to pass their full licence and never will. Just take a few deep breaths and forgive the corner cutters who swoop into intersections and give you filthy looks because you're outrageously in their way whilst you wait to innocently pull out on your righfull side of the road.
I have learnt to stay very calm and almost submissive, I wave and smile a lot at the angry faces and say thank you to anyone who rarely lets me in to a queue of traffic or gives way when I'm reversing out of a car park space. I'm over being angry and in a hurry, I'm at the stage where I almost find it all funny.
My youngest son is about to start driving lessons, I'm paying big money for him to learn with an AA tutor as I really don't want my son dead before he's 20.
As and aside, I've been caught speeding here, 140km on the Hamner route, over those little bumpy hillock things that make your tummy flip. My boys were loving it lol until we got stopped by some Starsky and Hutch type policeman who did a handbrake turn in the middle of the road and came after us like we were runaway bank robbers or something. That was about four months after we arrived 2004 and apart from the fire engine thing and them crashing into us we have been safe and saintly ever since :-)

Pom_Chch

Driving instructors Good one! Not many people seem to have formal lessons here. As Bo says it's mostly parents taking kids out and showing them how to drive before sitting the test. Those parents usually have bad habits that are being passed down to kids. It's the same habits you see here - tailgating, unsafe overtaking, wrong speed/handling around corners, attempting to merge (dear god it's not difficult) and dodgy u-turns. It's the impatient and aggressive attitudes that bug me the most, the polar opposite of what I've known Kiwi's to be. Strange. Like a Jekyll and Hyde thing! Kiwi's out of vehicles vs Kiwi's behind the wheel. Something changes!

Pom_Chch

Problem is though, no amount of staying calm and keeping an eye out will save you from someone making a huge error in judgement and you getting caught up in it. We can all be highly vigilant and drive defensively, but if someone overtakes you on a blind corner at 100km/hour whilst on the phone, smashes into an on-coming vehicle and you're right behind them? Curtains for you mate! Or someone who's had a few beers with friends and crosses the central line into your car on a highway. Nothing you can do. And that's what sucks about it all is the selfishness of peoples' actions on the roads.

Bo-Jangles

Me too!

I smile and wave like a loon if anyone lets me out and always like to piss off the people behind me by stopping and letting other people go before me. They usually are so stunned and don't know what to do but won't look at your face and you hardly ever get a smile, a wave or a nod of thanks. I just like to amuse myself by giving them an evil stare and saying thank you for them.

Moses2013

I see the same problems here in Ireland, so it's not just New Zealand. It's speeding, but then you also have drivers who are so slow that people behind get impatient and start overtaking. There is a local driving instructor and I'm shocked how bad he drives himself.

Justcol

I havent even heard of anyone blaming the chinese this year

wez130

It isn't just this year though, i noticed the same story on the news last year, i think 8 people died in the space of three days in three separate accidents when i was there last year, myself largely didn't see much terrible driving, and i drove literally the whole north island in the space of 10 days. The only incident i saw was a BMW 1 series overtake me on a blind bend on the coromandel coast road on the way to Thames. That was it! I guess i was just lucky.
I have always been the kind of driver to anticipate what other drivers are going to do too and have been prepared for them to pull out on me etc so i'm ready to brake when needed.
However, this forum isn't the first place i've read about the terrible driving in New Zealand, so it must be more widespread than i thought. I think the test needs to be toughened, and i think the restricted license needs to be re-thought. Just because you're restricted to a small engine when you're 17 doesn't make the chances of an accident any less. I won't speculate on the test system over there though as i don't know what it's like.

Bo-Jangles

There's no restrictions around engine size and the 17 year olds mostly aspire to driving an Impreza or Nissan Skyline or similar nutty boy racing machine. The restricted licence just prevents you from carrying passengers unless they are your spouse, parent or guardian and does not allow you to drive on your own at night between the times of 10pm and 5am unless accompanied by someone with a full licence.