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This information relates to people involved in a crash who were driving on an overseas licence and how this has changed over time.
This information is limited to drivers. Overseas drivers are identified in Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency’s Crash Analysis System (CAS) by their licence status. Visitor status information is not collected for passengers, cyclists, pedestrians or other road users injured in road crashes.
A person can drive on an appropriate overseas licence or international permit for up to 12 months in New Zealand, from when they last entered New Zealand, however they must convert it to a New Zealand licence if they wish to drive after this time. While some information is gathered on whether the driver on an overseas licence is a short-term visitor, student, or migrant, this is not always known.
Not all overseas drivers involved in crashes are at fault, and only a minority of those at-fault drivers crashed because they failed to adapt to New Zealand driving conditions, for instance, driving on the wrong side of the road or not understanding give way rules. Most overseas drivers crash for the same reasons as New Zealand drivers.
Note: The determination of primary responsibility/fault for a crash is based on the crash movements and crash cause factors assigned in the Crash Analysis System. It is not based on legal liability or court conviction. Fault/responsibility here only considers driver and rider factors contributing to the crash. There may also be road or system factors that contributed to the crash.
The number of fatal crashes involving overseas drivers has trended upward considerably slower than the number of overseas visitors.
|
Definition |
Overseas visitors and number of fatal crashes involving overseas drivers |
|
Nature of data |
Quantitative |
| Primary source | Crash Analysis System extracted via SAS, Tourism NZ data |
| Custodian of data |
Ministry of Transport |
| URL |
For data on overseas visitors see: http://archive.stats.govt.nz/infoshare/SearchPage.aspx |
| Frequency | Annual |
| Disaggregation |
National |
| Quality of the data |
Good |
| Next Update | September |
Despite the increase in overseas visitors, the number of injury crashes involving overseas drivers has generally not trended upward.
|
Definition |
Overseas visitors and number of serious and minor injury crashes involving overseas drivers |
|
Nature of data |
Quantitative |
| Primary source | Crash Analysis System extracted via SAS, Tourism NZ data |
| Custodian of data |
Ministry of Transport |
| URL |
For data on overseas visitors see: http://archive.stats.govt.nz/infoshare/SearchPage.aspx Data can be found by clicking the 'Browse' tab, then selecting Tourism->International Travel and Migration - ITM-> Visitor arrival totals (Annual-Dec), then choosing “Actual Counts". |
| Frequency | Annual |
| Disaggregation |
National |
| Quality of the data |
Good |
| Next Update | September |