Holiday officially ends with road toll lowest since 1960

New Zealand's holiday road toll for Christmas-New Year remained at nine when the period ended at 6am today, police said.

It was the lowest number of road deaths since the 1959/60 holiday period when eight people died, Land Transport New Zealand said today.

The figure was four lower than last year.

Police national road safety manager Steve Fitzgerald told NZPA today he was extremely pleased by the lower figure. "However, it's now a matter of sustaining that number throughout the rest of the year."

The holiday road toll would remain provisional for another 30 days, in case injured people died within that time.

"However, apart from concerns about one passenger who was injured in a crash at Meremere, Waikato, on New Year's Day, I've had no advice about concerns for anybody else."

Mr Fitzgerald said there were a number of possible reasons for the lower road toll this period.

"We've had poor weather conditions, which could have meant people stayed indoors with a good book -- there has been proportionally little traffic on the road.

"There seems to have been better behaviour across the board, from talking to our front line staff."

Two of the holiday period deaths were related to alcohol, Mr Fitzgerald said.

"The others were mainly due to people being blase about the conditions they were driving in. We've had people in rivers, hitting trees, crossing the centre line -- and the results were catastrophic."

One rear seat passenger died in Hamilton after being unrestrained.

"Seat belt use has been pretty good though. We know we only have about 6 per cent of people not wearing seatbelts now."

Airbags in vehicles were purely complementary to seatbelt use, he said.

During 2004, four toddlers were killed in driveways; their deaths not included in the toll because they did not happen on public roads.

"That's a message for parents and caregivers to be careful."

Mr Fitzgerald said deaths involving vehicles on beaches with public access, and at railway crossings -- all included in the road toll -- also highlighted the need for caution in those areas.

There were 435 road deaths during 2004, 26 lower than the previous year and the second lowest toll in 41 years.

- NZPA