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New council targets motorbike road toll
A new safety council has been set up in a bid to reduce the motorbike road toll
Fri, 21 Jan 2011 6:11p.m. By Emma Joliff
Economist and motorbike rider Gareth Morgan is to head a new motorcycle safety council.
It will be funded out of ACC levies and will examine ways to bring down the death and injury rate among motorcyclists.
If it doesn't work, bikers are likely to find the cost of registering their machines will go up.
Fifty people died in motorcycle accidents last year; 10 years ago that toll stood at 30.
A new advisory council, led by prominent investor, economist and motorcyclist Gareth Morgan, will spend $2 million a year on initiatives to improve motorcycle safety; fully funded by a $30 motorcycle safety levy imposed last year.
“We need to bring the accidents and injuries down,” Mr Morgan says. “It's pretty simple really, in terms of objective. Otherwise this levy, we'll have no choice I suspect, for it will keep going up.”
Safety initiatives for the 90,000 motorcyclists will follow an Australian model.
“While our motorcycle road toll has gone up by 60 percent in the last decade, theirs has declined by 20 percent,” ACC Minister Nick Smith says.
Mr Morgan says one particular problem is when loose metal is interfaced with tar seal.
“That's dynamite for a motorcycle.”
Peter McIntosh, national president of the Ulysses Club, says keeping the roads swept clear is imperative and riders need to stop and take care at intersections.
Big ACC levy increases last year sparked protests from motorcyclists around the country.
Mr McIntosh, a vocal opponent of the increases, is now on the safety council.
“If we improve the safety of motorcyclists then we improve the safety of all road users.”
The increase in levies has seen Mr McIntosh pay $530 to register his bike this year, as opposed to $370 last year.
“We look forward to taking up the levy challenge again,” he says.
“This initiative has, to some degree, come from the anger from motorcyclists,” Mr Smith says.
The ACC Minister says if the motorcycle road toll comes down, ACC levies will too, but if the toll rises, so too will the monetary cost to motorcyclists.
