The road toll for the Christmas holiday period just ended is on track to be the lowest in several years.
The unconfirmed toll now stands at 13, compared with 22 last year and 19 the year before that.
That figure may increase, however, with one person still in a critical condition on Thursday night after a crash near Morrinsville, and a number of crashes around the country on Thursday night.
They include a single-vehicle crash in Havelock North about 10pm on Thursday, when a car went down a bank, killing one person and seriously injuring two others.
If the toll was confirmed, it would be the lowest since Christmas 2020, when 11 people died on New Zealand roads during the holiday period.
The official holiday period started at 4pm on Christmas Eve and ended at 6am yesterday.
Overall, the road toll for the year just ended was also well down on previous years.
According to the Ministry of Transport, the provisional toll for 2024 was 291 — the lowest since 253 deaths were recorded more than a decade ago in 2013.
The worst toll was recorded in 1973 when 843 people died on New Zealand roads, at a time when the country’s population was significantly lower.
• Police have released the name of the man who died in a single-vehicle crash in Balclutha before Christmas. He was Cody Blair Storer, 24, of Balclutha.
Emergency services were called to Gormack St, between Moir St and Barnego Rd, about 10.35pm on December 20.
Mr Storer, the sole occupant, died at the scene.
Inquires into the circumstances of the crash are ongoing. — RNZ/APL
