Upgrade the drivers

The SH2 saga sadly drags on and on. The opposing views are well expounded in the recent letters by M Maunders and P Kelly, respectively claiming the road is highly dangerous and demanding an immediate upgrade, and the latter claiming that the major failing is lack of driver skills.

A number of professionals and extremely well qualified people using SH2, including Greg Murphy and commercial drivers, are firm believers that drivers are the major cause of accidents; I highly respect these more-than-less-informed opinions. Yes, any road can be improved and SH2 is no different: for example, the mish-mash of different speed limits needs serious attention, but will not need millions of dollars to improve.

A win-win solution is for more to be spent upgrading driver skills; basic skills that apply on any road driven and likely will improve with experience.

Our licensing requirements are pathetic when compared to countries such as Germany or Australia; in Victoria, it is a requirement that learners have a minimum of 120 hours learning, including 20 hours experience at night, which bear no comparison to the feeble standards here. Let's just do it, better driver skills are the safety answer. Go figure.

P Hickling, Papamoa

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