Two brothers who were lucky to survive a head-on crash when an oncoming car veered into their lane have a simple message for reckless motorists.

“It is not worth risking your life and the others
around you. Get home to your whānau safely,” 24-year-old Henry Samuels said.

But his plea, and those of first responders and road safety advocates, continue to fall on deaf ears.

Twenty-four people have died on Northland’s roads this year and emergency services are braced for more this long weekend.

Three hours into Matariki, a woman was found dead after her car travelled through a fence, down a bank, coming to rest in a creek on Whareora Rd in Whangārei.

Samuels’ terrifying experience was also on a long weekend. He, his younger brother Junior Laveaina, 23, and two mates were travelling to Kaitāia on Kings’ Birthday weekend when they saw fast-moving headlights through the trees on a bend.

“The vehicle was coming down too fast and was on our lane and then the other car tried to whip back onto his side of the road and hit us head-on,” Samuels claimed.

He heard a big bang as the two vehicles collided.

“Everyone in our car was dazed.”

Samuels helped his brother from the vehicle before pulling one of his mates out of the back seat to safety.

He claimed to have smelled alcohol on the driver and passenger of the other vehicle when he rushed to check on them moments after the crash.

Even though Samuels’ vehicle was totalled, he and the others escaped with only some minor injuries from their seatbelts.

Despite these types of horror stories, people are still choosing to make other poor choices behind the wheel. But why? Are we numb?

From the point of view of road safety expert Dr Fergus Tate, we’re not desensitised.

“I don’t think we were ever sensitised.”

Tate said when the likelihood of something happening to a person is minuscule people associate the risk with being zero and “it doesn’t feature in their psyche”.

“Because we’re not personally associated with it.”

Nor do we connect with the fact that someone else’s mistake may affect you, Tate said.

“We think ‘I don’t make mistakes therefore, I’m safe’, but that’s not necessarily true.”

The slow feed of coverage about road deaths also erodes its impact, Tate explained.

He said the Christchurch mosque attack in which 51 people were killed in one act equated to almost two months of road deaths but the latter stirs less emotion as they are “drip-fed through”.

In a recent Advocate column, Roadsafe Northland chairman John Williamson highlighted the phenomenon of psychic numbing as a reason why we may be desensitised to our road toll.

Psychic numbing is the idea that “the more people die, the less we care”, he said.

“The death of an individual can have a powerful effect on our emotions, but as numbers rise so does our indifference.”

Another factor warping our perception of risk is our search for blame when a road death does occur.

“That reduces the risk to you personally because you’re looking for ‘it wasn’t me, it wasn’t my son or daughter – it was the fault of the road or the fault of the other driver’.”

Serious crash investigator Warren Bunn said driver behaviour was behind road fatalities.

“People jump up and down about the potholes and all the rest of it but it’s the driving behaviour and psyche.”

The way we behave behind the wheel hasn’t really changed in the 40-plus years Bunn has been in his line of work.

“But the number of vehicles we have on the road and the people that are driving has increased. Back in the day, it was a one-car family and Dad drove, nobody else.”

Now, Mum has a car, Dad has a car and a work car, and they’ve got teenagers who have a car.

Bunn said that in earlier times, people also lived in more rural areas and smaller cities so when a serious crash occurred, the whole town felt it.

“At the end of the day, they are just counted as numbers but to that number, there’s the trauma to those left behind and the families.”

And while people may be disconnecting from the destruction road deaths inflict, enforcement alone isn’t going to change attitudes.

“In Northland, we have the perennial local people die on local roads; alcohol, drugs …”

Bunn said the consequences of our actions behind the wheel need to hit home as they are the red flags telling us we’re on a bad course.

Unpaid speeding tickets, disqualifications on driving records, lost licences – they are all indications our behaviours need to change.

Police, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency and Te Manatū Waka Ministry of Transport have urged drivers to be responsible for their safety and that of others this weekend.

Superintendent Steve Greally, director of the National Road Policing Centre, said police did not want to see more families mourning due to an avoidable road crash.

“Please take that extra moment to question if your speed, those drinks, a decision not to put your seatbelt on or picking up the phone while driving might cause myself or others any harm.”

Karina Cooper is deputy news director and covers breaking and general news for the Advocate. She also has a special interest in investigating what is behind the headlines and getting to heart of a story.