Speed limit tolerances lowered over Labour Weekend to improve driver behaviour have been effective in the South, Dunedin police say.
Southern District Command Centre Deployment co-ordinator Senior Sergeant Matt Scoles said the driving behaviour of motorists in the South at the weekend was ''pretty good''.
The official holiday period runs from 4pm on Friday until 6am today and during that time anyone driving more than 4kmh over the posted speed limit was liable to be ticketed.
Snr Sgt Scoles said although the speed limit tolerance had improved driver behaviour in the South, the national holiday road toll remained at three yesterday, compared with one a year ago.
National manager of road policing Superintendent Carey Griffiths said the average toll for the past five years - before last year's record low of just one death - was seven deaths and 127 injuries.
A 10-year-old girl, who died after being hit by a motorcycle on State Highway 30 at Lake Rotoma, near Rotorua, might have dashed on to the road to return to a lakeside holiday home when she was struck.
The child was flown to Rotorua Hospital in a critical condition after the incident, about 7.50pm on Sunday.
Locals said the girl had been kayaking and ran across the highway, which separates the lake from holiday homes.
Supt Griffiths said police were still investigating the incident, but having spoken to the motorcycle rider, the early indications were ''it doesn't look like there's any fault on the part of the rider''.
On Saturday afternoon, a 75-year-old Tokoroa woman died after her car crossed a centre line and collided head-on with a truck on State Highway 1 at Lichfield.
Keith Davies (54) died after a crash at Dairy Flat, north of Auckland, less than an hour after the start of the official holiday period.
He was a passenger in car that collided with a truck about 4.30pm on Friday. His teenage son Richard was driving.
''They have been three quite fundamentally different fatalities, two of them have been cars crossing the centre line but other than that they are all quite different ... It is people making mistakes,'' Supt Griffiths said.
• Snr Sgt Scoles said the elderly woman hit by a ute in central Dunedin on Sunday was in a serious but stable condition in the intensive care unit at Dunedin Hospital last night.
- By Shawn McAvinue & NZME
