Recognising our unsung road safety heroes

This Road Safety Week Fabian Marsh writes about the unsung road safety heroes helping to make everyone’s journeys safer.

Not all heroes wear capes. Sometimes, they wear hi-viz. Or hard-hats. Or carry over-sized schoolbags.

This Road Safety Week we're celebrating the nation’s true safety heroes—those unsung Kiwis working behind the scenes to keep people safe and reduce the harm caused on the roads.

Every one of us has an opportunity to keep others safe as we move about. It could be the volunteers pushing and advocating for safer neighbourhoods. The officers tasked with ensuring people are driving safely. Mums and dads helping their kids progress through the licensing system. The school patrols helping their friends and schoolmates safely cross the road at the start and end of each school day. There are community leaders, iwi groups, disability advocates, teachers, and driving instructors—all contributing to a safe system.

We must acknowledge the critical, often life-saving work done by our first responders at the scene of road crashes, and those then responsible for helping people on the road to recovery following such a life-changing event.

So much of New Zealand’s road safety work is unseen and uncelebrated. Across the country there are hundreds, if not thousands of people, beavering away at all levels of local and central government to improve our infrastructure, to ensure the right speed limits are in the right places, and to make sure proper policies are in place to provide the outcomes we need. Often their work is unappreciated until someone really needs it, when it could truly become a matter of life and death.

And as we recognise and celebrate those efforts, we also want to especially acknowledge those roadworkers who've been doing everything they can to get Aotearoa moving after a series of devastating weather events.

In the weeks since the Auckland Anniversary Floods, the effect of Cyclones Hale and Gabrielle, and ongoing damage from storms, thousands upon thousands of people have been working to restore our transport network. They have been out in the worst of weathers, and under immense pressure, to fix what was broken—often while also dealing with their own personal crises and challenges.?

It has been, and continues to be, an enormous job. More than three months on, work continues to reconnect parts of the network and restore full access to communities.

These heroes are at the forefront of our efforts, but there's so much work happening elsewhere in the form of advocacy, stewardship, and pastoral care.

Together, these people are our real safety heroes and leaders. Let’s celebrate those groups and people who are advocating and supporting changes that make a difference to road safety, and empower those seeking to make a difference.

The status quo is not an option. We can—and we must—develop a better, safer, more equitable system. We must continue work to support those affected by crashes. We have to support those out there every day doing the mahi to build a modern transport network.

To everyone involved in the road safety space—we see you, we acknowledge you, and we are truly grateful for your work.

Fabian Marsh is Senior Manager Road Safety at Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency.