KEY POINTS:
The number of people dying on New Zealand's roads increased last year by seven per cent.
The 2007 road toll stands at 422 - 29 more than the previous year.
However, road policing operations manager Inspector Carey Griffiths said the figures were misleading as the number of deaths per 10,000 vehicles was 1.3 - the same as 2006.
"A lot of people get the impression that the road toll is going up but it has actually come down significantly," he said.
"In fact, if we were killing people at the same rate as we were in 20 years, the road toll today would be around 1100."
However, New Zealand's road toll was falling more slowly than other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries due to its "unforgiving" roads and high default speed limit.
"We've got 100km/h on roads that by international standards are really 70-80km/h roads," Mr Griffiths said.
"So if you drive too fast and go off a bank in New Zealand you're highly likely to be killed. If you do the same in other countries ... you're more likely to hit a barrier.
"What you've got separating you from death in New Zealand isn't a barrier in most cases, it's a three-inch (7cm) white painted line."
New Zealand also had a high blood alcohol level compared with other countries; New Zealand allowed 0.08 milligrams per 100ml of blood compared with Australia's 0.05.
Countries which had reduced their blood alcohol levels from 0.08 to 0.05 had, without exception, experienced fewer alcohol-related fatalities.
Police believed the 2007 fatalities would have been 22 less if seatbelts had been worn.
Annual road toll figures:
1990-729,
1991-650,
1992-646,
1993-600,
1994-580,
1995-582,
1996-514,
1997-539,
1998-501,
1999-508,
2000-462,
2001-455,
2002-405,
2003-461,
2004-435,
2005-404,
2006-393
2007 - 422
- NZPA
