NZ's deadliest roads identified

The study found no one or five star roads in New Zealand. Photo / Ross White

The most dangerous stretches of highway in New Zealand have been identified in a new study that shows more than a third of our busiest roads are unsafe.

The research was aimed at helping roading officials work out how to make our state highways safer, but it will also tell motorists the places they need to take the greatest care.

The New Zealand Road Assessment Programme - dubbed KiwiRap - saw 10,000km of state highway across the country filmed, studied and assigned "star ratings". Each 5km stretch of highway earned a rating, from one star for our least safe roads to five stars for most safe.

There were no one or five star roads in New Zealand - 39 per cent were two star, 56 per cent were three star and only 5 per cent four star.

New Zealand Transport Agency's Ernst Zollner said some of the best safety gains could be made with "minor but significant" improvements, such as removing roadside hazards. AA spokesman Mike Noon said a special vehicle fitted with five cameras recorded video footage of 10,000km of state highway.

The footage captured road surface, condition, camber and what was on the roadside including ditches and trees.

Of all the highways, 32 were deemed high risk when it came to collective risk - the number of crashes per kilometre.

Auckland and Northland had the most high-risk highways, followed by the Waikato/Bay of Plenty region.


Noon said KiwiRap provided a national standard and helped the NZTA measure whether it was spending money on the right roads and whether it was making a difference.

Crash data would be analysed again in a year to gauge KiwiRap's success.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce said $11 billion had been committed to improving the nation's state highways.

High-risk roads included State Highway 2 near Tauranga where Diane Wilton-Jones was killed in January. Her husband Graham said he worried about the road even before she was killed. "Every time I drive up there ... I cringe when I go there and avoid it if I can. I can still see the marks on the road, it's horrible," he said.

Ken Vesey also drives past the spot on State Highway 1 near Hamilton where his father James died on Christmas Day 2008. Vesey said major improvements had been made to the intersection his father pulled out from before he died, but he wanted to see more done to improve road safety in New Zealand.