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Foreign drivers focus of New Zealand road safety program

Xinhua, October 6, 2016 Adjust font size:

The New Zealand government on Thursday approved a package of road safety programs aimed at making motoring safer for visitors on key tourist routes in the South Island.

The government was spending 15 million NZ dollars (10.75 million U.S. dollars) on road safety engineering on the routes over the next two years, Associate Transport Minister Craig Foss said in a statement.

The funding was part of a road safety package worth 25 million NZ dollars (17.92 million U.S. dollars) for visiting drivers.

"We want all visiting drivers to experience New Zealand as a safe, attractive and accessible place," Foss said.

The wider Visiting Drivers Project a partnership between central government, local government and the private sector had rolled out dozens of initiatives since it began in 2014 in the wake of a series of high-profile road crashes involving foreign visitors.

These included online safety videos for Chinese, Indian, German and U.S. drivers and driver assessments at car hire companies.

Foss said there was "no silver bullet" to improve road safety, but the infrastructure projects would create a safer environment that helped prevent crashes and improve the outcome of any crashes that did occur. Endit