John Williamson
Chairman of Northland Road Safety Trust (NRST), John Williamson, is an enthusiastic and much welcomed integral member of the NRST team, bringing strong support and guidance on all aspects of quality control related to programmes. He has volunteered his time to the Trust since 2003 but he has been involved with NRST, and as District and National Councillor for the NZ Automobile Association for 25 years. He brings enormous experience in governance to the Trust including positions held as Chairman of Chamber of Commerce, Council of Social Services, Kiwi North, Kamo Home Aged Care, and Presbyterian Support. He is an International Jaycee Senator.
John holds degrees in Agricultural Science and Marketing, plus a Masters degree in Management. He was a Whangarei District Councillor for nine years, a Lecturer in Marketing and Management at Northtec, and held a position as Northland Regional Manager of a stock and station agency. He has also held positions as Independent Hearings Commissioner, and District Licensing Commissioner.
As a consultant in 2009 he developed the Northland Safety Strategy for Northland Regional Council and has written a column on Roading and Road Safety matters for the Northern Advocate since 2010. John is passionately interested in investigating the means by which we can make our roads and drivers safer, and looks forward to innovative solutions making the difference we need to see on our roads.
Ashley Johnston
Ashley took over the role of Programme Manager for Northland Road Safety Trust from Gillian Archer in 2020. She was with the New Zealand Police in a variety of road safety roles prior, most recently as Strategic Advisor on the Road Safety Team and Police National Headquarters. She spent many years on the front line however, seeing the real effects of road trauma. Her road safety roles with NZ Police enable her proactive approach to the development and delivery of road safety programmes throughout Whangarei and Kaipara Districts. She thrives as part of the proactive team developing and making educational strategies available to the Whangarei and Kaipara communities which will result in safer roads for all road users.
Ashley says, “I seek ways to continually improve NRST’s delivery through proactive relationship management, enhancement of current services and the identification of new, innovative programmes that specifically target the highest prioritised risk as set out by Waka Kotahi.”
Stephen Moore
Stephen Moore has been a board member with Roadsafe (Northland Road Safe Trust) for three years. He has a wealth of experience in the motor industry as a mechanic, then, with a shift of perspective also in vehicle sales and service. In total Stephen worked in the Motor Industry for forty years. He brings to NRST all of that valuable practical knowledge of vehicle operation and safety, along with a good understanding of driver attitudes when it comes to their vehicles and the way in which they use them. He wants to ensure New Zealand roads are as safe as they can be.
Stephen says, “I want to make a difference through driver education in bringing the road toll down.”
Bill Rossiter
Bill Rossiter started the Northland Road Safety Trust with Roger Scampton in 1993 because Councils of the day did not have the bandwidth. Prior, he had been with the Road Safety Association since 1980, and he ran Defensive Driving courses for many years. Bill owned a printing business for thirty-one years and was a Whangarei District councillor for three years, then Regional District councillor for the ensuing fifteen years. As a Ministry of Transport Traffic Officer in Whangarei and Auckland from 1960 – 1962 and in Auckland from 1969-1970, Bill was involved with a lot of driver testing. This experience feeds directly into NRST with the first-hand knowledge of the real-life skills and capacities of new drivers.
Bill says, “I want to see NRST deliver awareness of the Road rules to all drivers, and have all drivers signaling stop at stop signs; and to have all drivers giving way to the right.”
Gerry O’Connell
Gerry O’Connell has been on the Roadsafe board since 2015 contributing significant expertise and knowledge. He worked for twenty-three years as Senior Driving Instructor for St John Driving Academy. He retired in 2018. As secretary for Whangarei Men’s Shed Inc. and with his involvement in church activities he has a number of community connections he can call on for the benefit of the Northland Road Safety Trust.
He says, “I hope to see a real reduction in trauma on our roads, particularly helped by improved driving standards.”
Roger Scampton
The Northland Road Safety Trust has been part of Roger Scampton’s life for twenty-eight years, but he has been involved with Road Safety groups since 1977 and is a proud life member of the Northland Road Safety Association (Inc). After qualifying as an A grade Motor Engineer, Roger spent eleven years in the trade, several of them as workshop foreman until 1976 when he became a service officer with AA (Ak). Part of that service including erecting and maintaining road signs, visiting secondary schools throughout Northland to provide introductory driving lessons, teaching Road Rules, and safe driving. He retired after 40 years’ service in various roles with the AA in 2016.
His work for the AA, particularly carrying out pre-purchase, WOFs, and vehicle compliance inspections, deliver substantial benefit to Northland Road Safety’s work since he is hyper-aware of the role poor vehicle maintenance can play in making our roads unsafe.
Roger says, “I would like greater emphasis placed on introducing driver education into the secondary school curriculum. Students need more in-school opportunity to study road rules, practice good safe behavior when behind the wheel, and learn to have respect for other road users.”
Trish Madison
Trish has been the Northland Road Safety Trust Administrator since 2017. She brought with her professional expertise as an accountant for fourteen years and two years as a certified Anti-money laundering Specialist. Like all organisations the background services which enable them to function are crucial and for NRST good practice to Roadsafe administration tasks ultimately contributes a vital service to all road users.
As an experienced accountant and business owner, Trish says, “Continuing to educate and improve users’ behaviour on our roads is a vision to champion.”
John Bain
