Car-crash-related injuries in 2017 hit 16-year high

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Injuries from car crashes hit a 16-year high last year.

New provisional figures from Statistics New Zealand reveal there were 40.5 injuries for every 100,000 people following motor vehicle incidents in 2017. The highest since 2002.

As for serious but not fatal injuries, Māori were represented in 67.8 injuries per 100,000 people. Serious but not fatal injuries are when someone is admitted to hospital and is deemed to have a 7 per cent or higher chance of dying.

380 people were killed on the roads in 2017. And as at September 9 this year, the road toll stood at 260. At the rate it's going, 2018's toll will be the fifth consecutive year it has risen, and the highest overall toll since 2009.

Stats NZ also pointed to injuries suffered from falls, where, unlike car crashes, the rate of Māori being seriously injured was "much lower" than the rest of the population at 49.5 injuries per 100,000 people.

Serious but not fatal self-harm rates were also highlighted as being at their highest recorded rate ever at 5.3 injuries per 100,000 people in 2017.

Government injury information manager James Clarke said the rise in non-fatal injuries could be due to more people surviving serious injuries, "in which case we may see fatalities decline".

The New Zealand Transport Agency's senior manager of road safety, Nic Johansson, said they were doing "a lot" but clearly "we have to do more".

He said it was important to continue trying to buck the trend and focus on crash prevention.