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by Santiago Bonhomme 

There is a scene that repeats itself every day in Queenstown. It has become so familiar that we hardly notice it anymore.

A tourist lands after a long flight. They collect their luggage, sign a rental agreement, receive a brief explanation about insurance, take the keys to a car and, just a few minutes later, set off on the left-hand side of the road toward Crown Range, Milford Sound or Glenorchy.

No one seems to ask whether that is enough.

A few days ago, a Chinese tourist lost his life on Crown Range. As so often happens, the discussion focused on black ice, road conditions and the circumstances of the crash. All of that may be true. But his death also raises another question. When does a tragedy really begin?

I am not writing from theory. Last year, an Asian tourist driving a rental car crashed into the vehicle carrying my brother-in-law. A few months later, I narrowly avoided another collision when a different rental car drove out of the New World car park against the flow of traffic.

And some years ago, I experienced something so absurd that it is still hard to believe. I was already halfway across Edith Cavell Bridge in Arthurs Point when, from the opposite side, the driver of a rental car decided to enter the bridge. Perhaps he thought my vehicle was transparent. Or simply an illusion. We ended up stopped face to face.

I do not believe my experiences are unusual. Speak to people who live in Queenstown and many will tell you similar stories. Sudden braking. Lane changes without signalling. Cars entering roundabouts the wrong way. Split-second manoeuvres that force other drivers to react immediately. Most end with nothing more than a fright. Others do not.

I am not writing this to blame the people who visit us. If any of us landed tomorrow in a country where traffic drives on the opposite side of the road, we would probably make mistakes too. The difference is that here those mistakes happen on mountain roads, with black ice, one-lane bridges and thousands of visitors behind the wheel.

Yet we rarely focus on where the conversation should begin. New Zealand’s vehicle rental industry generates around NZ$2.3 billion a year. If an industry of that scale profits from putting thousands of vehicles on the road, it should also accept a proportional responsibility for preparing the people who will drive them.

Is explaining the insurance and handing over the keys really enough? Does anyone make sure that a driver who has never driven on the left is actually ready to head out onto the road?

The next crash may once again be blamed on black ice, fatigue or a simple driving error. That is entirely possible. But we still do not know whether the tragedy really began on that bend in the road, or much earlier, behind a rental counter, when someone handed over a set of keys and, with a practised smile that had become almost automatic, said, “Have a good trip.”