Waikato police have expressed about at the high number of serious traffic accidents on "rural rat runs", after a fatal crash last week.
A rear seat passenger was fatally injured on Friday when a Mitsubishi Evo collided with a corner of a rural bridge, rolled several times and ended up on its roof in a paddock.
The driver of the car suffered moderate cuts, while the front seat passenger received minor injuries.
A heightened police presence on main roads meant some drivers were turning to "rural rat runs" to avoid being caught speeding, Waikato road policing manager Inspector Leo Tooman said.
Rat runs were a system of roads crossing the Waikato and Hauraki Plains, used by drivers wanting to avoid travelling through towns.
"The number of fatal and serious crashes on state highways throughout the Waikato has been diminishing, while the number on these rural rat runs has increased," Mr Tooman said.
Between January and August 2007 there were seven fatal crashes on non-state highway rural roads while over the same period this year the figure rose to 13.
