Kerre Woodham: The road toll still needs reducing

You'll have heard it in our news, since Monday the 20th of April, 18 people have been killed in 14 separate crashes on our roads. As of this morning, 12 more lives have been lost on New Zealand roads so far this year compared to the same point last year. To give some context though, our road tolls today are nothing like the bad old days. Back in 1973, long before many of you were born, when we had a much smaller population and fewer cars on the road, the road toll was around 850 deaths. And you can only imagine the injuries involved in those as well. In 1975 seatbelts in cars became compulsory and the road toll began to decline. It was around about 625 in 1975 – that was considered cause for celebration. And over time, it's come down to fewer than 300 deaths on the road thanks to seatbelts, thanks to better engineering of cars, thanks to improved medical outcomes and rigorous enforcement of traffic rules.

Bruce Cotterill: Old cars, bad drivers and roads that need fixing

It happened right in front of me. In fact it was only 30m away.

I was riding my bike on a country road. Although the speed limit was 100km/h, and there was some traffic around, it’s a peaceful place to ride when you’re used to a life in the city.

Suddenly, a loud noise. Two vehicles are spinning. One is heading, toward me, bound for the ditch on my side of the road. Up ahead, a fourth was stationary in the grass on my right.