Instead, he wants New Zealanders - some of whom he says ‘‘aren't the flashest drivers on the road'' themselves - to have confidence in a multi-agency safer driving campaign launched last year.
The Visiting Drivers Project involves the Government, local authorities, the New Zealand Transport Agency, and private operators.
It includes training for overseas tourism operators, in-flight road safety information, a code of practice for rental vehicle operators, and $25million of road safety improvements such as improved rest area signage, more ‘‘keep left'' lane arrows, more no-passing lines, more barriers and shoulder widening where feasible.
Mr Foss was in Invercargill yesterday to meet members of the Southern Road Safety Influencing Group, which is feeding into the project.
He said while there was still ‘‘angst'' among New Zealanders about the behaviour of some visiting drivers, there was less of it than there was before the project was launched.
‘‘We have certainly all moved on to a much better space than we were last year.''
Among project initiatives was the installation of centre line rumble strips, he said.
An additional 125km had been installed between Te Anau and the Fiordland National Park boundary on State Highway 94 and between Mossburn and Frankton on State Highway 97.
That was in addition to 50km of rumble strips between Queenstown and Milford Sound and 55km of rumble strips on State Highway 6 between Hokitika and Haast completed late last year.
‘‘There is not one thing that anyone of [us] can do to improve safety. We can't wave a magic wand. But bit by bit [the initiatives] are all adding up.''
The project is targeted at Southland, Otago and the West Coast, where roads carry high numbers of tourist drivers.
In 2014, overseas drivers were involved, but not necessarily at fault, in 16 fatal crashes and 536 injury crashes.
Ministry of Transport figures show 25% of crashes in Southland and 24% of crashes in the Queenstown-Lakes area between 2009 and 2013 involved overseas drivers.
Asked how soon it would be before it was known whether the project was reducing the number of crashes involving tourists, Mr Foss said the project was not all about statistics.
‘‘If you are involved in an accident or have a loved one, family member or friend [involved], it doesn't matter what the statistics are ...
‘‘We have to concentrate on minimising the circumstances in which accidents can happen, be that safer, sophisticated, better engineered roads, education for those that are going to drive here, down to interventions by rental vehicle companies.''
