It is no surprise that hire cars in New Zealand account for many of the crashes on our roads. According to the New Zealand Herald, almost 600 crashes in the year of 2013 were from foreign visitors. 11 of these crashes were fatal and the rest resulted in injury (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11269335). This is a stupidly high figure, and I feel that it is getting worse.

Queenstown and the south island in general seem to have had a huge increase in crashes of late. Cars drifting over centre lines, running stop signs, going around roundabouts the wrong way or stopping in places that are very unsuitable.

I mention 'Non English Speaking Tourists' as if you don't understand English, then you are going to struggle with reading signs, warnings, directions etc. This always causes problems when approaching a roundabout, a junction, looking for a specific hotel or destination as they are trying to look for a sign. That is what that means. I do feel that English speaking people should also be made to watch an instructional video or undergo some form of test as road rules, signage, road markings and layouts in every country are different.

I propose that we have a mandatory test, or at the very least, an instructional video in the drivers native language. I feel that the main problem is caused by lack of understanding the road rules and a lack of experience on our roads. This could be remedied very easily with a short test or explanation.

We HAVE to do something about this problem before more and more people are put at risk, injured or even worse, killed on New Zealand's roads.

You can help to make New Zealand roads safer.

Will Palmer.