Road Safety is a collaborative responsibility.
It involves key organisations that all have a role to play in education, awareness and enforcement.
Sadly, for horse riders & carriage drivers, we aren’t viewed as a priority group by central Government in its policies, treatment and spend - this means the stakeholders tasked with implementing and delivering the Government’s expectations simply overlook the needs of our community.
Not anymore!
What started as a grassroots advocacy campaign supported by the entire New Zealand equestrian community for improved status in transport legislation, has led to the formation of Pass Wide & Slow New Zealand.
Our focus is to deliver a road safety message aimed at educating the driver network on how to approach and pass a horse and rider/carriage driver safely.
Pass WIDE = 2metres
and SLOW – SLOW DOWN
Kia Tūpato Kia Ata Haere
Stakeholder Support
We have approached key stakeholders for support to share our message.
Thank you for standing with us!
New Zealand Police - your organisation's support and endorsement of the Pass Wide & Slow road safety message was the right thing to do, but my goodness it lifted the horse-riding communities’ spirits. That’s illustrated in the organic reach of your first collaborative social media post with PWASNZ - we reached over 1,000,000.
Thank you New Zealand Trucking Association - your proactive commitment to road safety is evident in the material your team has produced to raise awareness of horse riders safety.
AA Automotive Association – what a pleasure your organisation is to deal with and you understood our why from the start. Thank you for sharing this important road safety message on your platform and an article - Sharing the Road in AA Directions magazine - improving safety for vulnerable road users.
Hato Hone St John - are supporting our first official nationwide campaign called Driver Empowerment, sharing our message to their social media audiences.
For too long equestrians have been a forgotten group in road safety messaging and your organisations have recognised that supporting and collaborating with PWASNZ could only be positive.
After all, we all share the same focus – saving lives. Thank you to the many good people within your organisations who are leading by way of action on the ground.
New Zealand Police
Your organisation’s support of our road safety mahi from day one has made a postive impact to our message, Kicking off with with our collabortive social media post which gained organic (free) reach of over 1,000,000. It was proof the community was ready to enage with what we had to say and showed kotahitanga in action.
And to start 2025 you are continuing to collaborate by supporting the distribution of 10,000 Driver Empowerment Flyers. NZ Police have agreed to distribute the flyers across their stations and with the driver network as and when appropriate
From the team at National Headquarters to police officers up and down the country, thank you for supporting the Pass Wide & Slow road safety message. We know enforcement and education go hand in hand, and NZ Police support for this mahi is critical to improving the safety and well-being of equestrians riding on the road.
“It is a positive initiative without asking the community for more than to slow a little and give other road users some space –we can make someone else’s journey safer.”
“Whether you are a car, on a horse, a motorcycle, a bicycle, or walking everybody deserves to be able to get to their destination safely and without stress. The AA believes sharing the road is the responsibility of everyone.
Patience, consideration and giving plenty of space, particularly around more vulnerable road users, will make for safer journeys for everyone.”
Hato Hone St John
Hato Hone St John are supporting our first official nationwide Driver Empowerment campaign.
Hato Hone St John are sharing our message to their social media audiences.
As first responders we appreciate your upfront commitment to supporting the Pass Wide & Slow road safety message. We are both vested in reducing trauma and injury on the road. Thank you for supporting PWASNZ’s first official nationwide Driver Education campaign.
“Truck drivers in New Zealand play a crucial role in road safety, especially when sharing the road with horse riders. Given the size and noise of trucks, it’s important for drivers to take extra precautions to ensure the safety of horse riders and their animals.”
Stakeholder Support We Deserve!
“Since the creation of PWASNZ brand later 2024 and after the viral success of the NZ Police collaborative post we have reached out to Waka Kotahi asking for support of the important life saving work we are doing for equestrians across Aotearoa. We look forward to hearing from the team and having them support the mahi we are doing to save lives on our roads.”
We have written to ACC asking they support and share the Pass Wide and Slow road safety message on behalf of equestrians. Its response confirms why it’s critical for horse riders to be formally recognised as a VRU in Transport legislation. Without anything binding, the position of we ‘can not’ by authorities tasked with reducing harm, will continue.
“While ACC do share content on general road safety, as a Crown Entity our priorities are guided by the Government Policy Statement on land transport, and the impact of accidents and cost on the ACC scheme. We are therefore not able to support a campaign of this nature.””