Media Statement
25 October 2005

Entries open for 2005 New Zealand Road Safety Awards

Entries for New Zealand’s top road safety awards open today for individuals, schools, community groups, local councils and businesses to showcase their inventions and achievements.

The 2005 Road Safety Innovation and Achievement Awards offer cash prizes and prestige in recognition of outstanding accomplishments by individuals and organisations in the road transport industry, the business sector and the wider community.

Open from today (25 October 2005) until 10 March 2006, entries will be judged by a panel of experts with winners to be announced at an awards ceremony in Wellington in April 2006.

The winner in each of five award categories receives a cash prize of $2000, with the overall Premier Award winner receiving an additional $3000 cash prize. To be eligible, innovations must have originated within New Zealand or have been significantly adapted for New Zealand conditions.
The awards are funded by the Road Safety Trust and administered by Land Transport New Zealand. The awards organising committee comprises representatives from the Automobile Association, AA Driver Education Foundation, New Zealand Police, Land Transport New Zealand and ACC.

This is the third year the awards programme has been run in New Zealand. Last year’s Premier Award was shared by the New Lynn Tongan Methodist church and Auckland company Databrake International.
The church’s ‘Safe in His Hands’ programme promoted road safety awareness among its large congregation and in the wider community. Databrake International developed an intelligent brake lighting system to monitor a vehicle's deceleration. Understood to be a world first as a retro fit, the system enables a vehicle’s hazard lights flash faster and more intensely as the level of braking increases.

Background information for media

There are five categories, plus the premier award:

- Road Safety Education Award
- Road Safety Community Award
- Road Safety in Organisations Award
- Road Safety Vehicle-Based Award
- Road Safety Road Engineering Award

Previous winners of the Road Safety Innovation and Achievement Awards

Road Safety Education Award

The 2003 award was jointly won by North Loburn School near Rangiora, for the ‘Sharing Our Roads’ education partnership with local logging truck drivers, and Te Puru School near Thames for developing a new parking and turning area for cars and buses, creating a safe environment for kids to come and go from school.

The 2004 Education Award winner was ‘Tricky Tracks’, a programme undertaken by a group of eight and nine-year-olds from Edendale School near Invercargill to make an area around railway tracks near the school safer.

Road Safety Community Award

In 2003 Gisborne-based Community Injury Prevention Unit (CIP) were recognised for developing a drink-driving education programme highlighting the devastating impact of an alcohol-related crash on the life of a promising young local athlete.

New Lynn's Tongan Methodist Church ‘Safe in His Hands’ programme was recognised in 2004 for promoting road safety awareness among its large congregation and in the wider community.

Road Safety Vehicle-Based Award

The 2003 award went to Transport Engineering Research New Zealand (TERNZ) for the development of the world's first Static Roll Threshold calculator, used to measure the stability of heavy vehicles and reduce their likelihood of rolling over.

In 2004 Databrake International won in the vehicle-based category for developing an intelligent brake lighting system to monitor a vehicle's deceleration. When critical braking thresholds are met the vehicle's hazard warning lights switch on - alerting other road users to the potential danger. Understood to be a world first as a retro fit, the hazard lights flash faster and more intensely as the level of braking increases.

Road Safety Road-Engineering

The 2003 award was won jointly by the Christchurch City Council and electronic signage firm High Technology Systems for a speed control system designed to implement temporary 40km/h speed limits in Christchurch school zones.

No entry was awarded in the Road Engineering category in 2004.

Road Safety in Organisations

Dairy company Fonterra won this category in 2003, and also took out the Premier Award, for a programme which reduced injury accidents among the company's large fleet of milk tankers by 63%.
2004 winner Excell Corporation implemented a range of safety measures to reduce its employees' at-fault crash rate from 72 percent in 1999 to 49 percent in 2004 (and less than 30% in 2005).

For more information see: http://www.roadsafety.govt.nz/roadsafetyinnovationawards/. For entry forms phone 0800 699 000.

ENDS

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