Christmas holiday road toll lowest in 37 years

By STUART DYE transport reporter

The country has recorded its lowest Christmas holiday road toll for 37 years, but two people died on the roads yesterday only hours after the season officially ended.

Twelve people lost their lives over the notorious holiday period - down from 17 last year.

This year's toll is the lowest since 1966-67, when nine people died.

The official period ran from 4pm on Christmas Eve to 6am yesterday.

In yesterday afternoon's fatalities, a woman, 32, and a boy, 6, were killed in a three-vehicle collision on State Highway 1 at Motuoapa, north of Turangi. A 17-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man were seriously hurt.

The Lion Foundation rescue helicopter flew them to Waikato Hospital, and late last night their conditions had stabilised.

The Government has set itself the target of no more than 300 road deaths a year by 2010.

Ministry of Health figures show that society's other killers heavily outweigh road deaths.

Twice as many people died of diabetes complications over the official holiday period and a third again committed suicide.

Heart disease and cancer claimed 512 lives between them over the same period.

The deadliest holiday period on record for road crashes was 1972-73, when 37 died.

Those killed on the roads over the holidays were:

* Guangcai Ye, 68, of Wellington, who died on Christmas Day after the car he was in left the road north of Hamilton.

* Jamie Karl Wells, 20, of Ruakaka, who was killed on December 27 when his car collided with another on SH1 near Whangarei.

* Tara Tran, 33, of Wellington, killed on December 27 when the van in which she was a passenger crossed the centre line south of Turangi and collided with three other cars.

* Desiree Poutu, 39, of Napier, who died after a crash on SH2 near Waipawa, southwest of Hastings on December 27.

* John Comper Smith, 74, of Wellington, who was killed near Otaki on December 29 when his car and a van collided on SH1.

* Caroline Adele McCrae, 16, of Waikanae, who died on December 29 after a crash on the Napier-Taupo highway.

* Li Xu, 31, of Mt Wellington in Auckland, who died after the vehicle she was in hit a power pole on SH2 near Mangatarata on the Hauraki Plains on December 29.

* A 21-year-old man who died when a car rolled at Whataroa in South Westland on December 30.

* Harold Patrick Kubuabola, 28, who died when a 4WD left the Southern Motorway near Takanini on New Year's Day.

* Harry James Laurie, 15, of Waihi, who died when a car went through a fence at Waihi on January 2.

* Grant Justin White, 39, of Kaihu near Dargaville, who was fatally injured when he was thrown from his car on January 2.

* Christopher Kyle Watson, 36, of Te Puninga, north of Morrinsville, who died on January 3 when a car crashed into a power pole on State Highway 27 at Tatuanui, 6km northeast of Morrinsville.

Holiday deaths

This year's holiday road toll, at 12, is the lowest for 37 years.

The lowest was in the 1966-67 period, when 9 people died.

The deadliest holiday period was 1972-73, when 37 were killed.