Car Hire Tourists Menace to New Zealand Road Safety
Car hire firms in New Zealand are being urged by the police to take more steps to educate their customers on the rules of the road before handing over the keys to a vehicle.
With more cheap flights to New Zealand available to customers in recent months, and long-haul destinations growing in popularity in 2010, New Zealand police are desperate to combat the new wave of speeding motorists who are not aware of the road regulations in the country.
A number of tourists on holiday to the South Island have already lost their lives because of reckless driving over the speed limits enforced on the highways. Police have been out in strength in Queenstown and Milford South encouraging motorists to slow down, with extra vigilance paid to motorists driving vehicles from car rental firms.
“We don’t want them going home in a wooden box,” Sergeant Geoff Sutherland, head of the Southland police highway patrol told the New Zealand Herald.
“These tourists pretty much arrive in the country and within minutes they have got a rental car and they are on their way. And there’s really nothing provided to them apart from a bit of verbal advice regarding our driving conditions and road rules,” he continued.
One foreign tourist on holiday was caught driving at 151 km/h (93 mph) a full 51 km/h over the speed limit. Next year’s Rugby World Cup is likely to further increase the problem as more foreign drivers hit New Zealand’s roads.
One initiative that is being taken is to work on guidelines for tourists to be handed out by car hire companies when they issue vehicles to customers.
Car Hire News posted by Geoff Hillingdon on 11 January 2010
Car hire, tourism, New Zealand, holidays, road safety, speed limit
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10619467
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