Fieldays visitors seeing red over road safety

Waikato Police are hoping an event focused new initiative to be unveiled at this week's National Fieldays at Mystery Creek will help prevent road trauma in the District and have the public seeing red about driving.

District Commander, Superintendent Win van der Velde, said by fully equipping a red SV6 Holden Commodore in Police livery the service had little doubt it would attract widespread comment which is exactly what Police were after.

"Last year the Waikato was the black sheep of the family in terms of the national trend of a dropping road toll in that we were the only District that experienced a rise in road deaths.

"In all 52 people died on Waikato roads and over 250 people were treated for serious road trauma related injuries and most of the crashes involved local people driving on local roads."

To address this, the District was seeing red and hoped the public would see it too.

"So for Fieldays we've introduced a red sheep of the fleet as an initiative to get people talking, not just about the car but about road safety in general and ways to prevent road trauma in particular.

"We're really interested in public feedback and commentary on the look, do they think the vehicle is more visible, would it have more of an impact and how do they think they can contribute to reducing trauma on Waikato roads?"

While solely a trial concept during Fieldays Police are not ruling out similar initiatives not just in the Waikato but around the country in their efforts to promote road safety.

"At the end of the day there are 52 people who aren't with us because of a tragedy that occurred on Waikato roads last year.

"This is a tragedy that should have all motorists transiting Waikato roads seeing red and we look forward to your feedback."