Police look at tougher penalties after high holiday road toll

Police are to look at ways to take more demerit points off law-breaking drivers in response to the high number of deaths this holiday period.

The official holiday period ended this morning at 6 am with 21 deaths, compared to 11 deaths last year. That was despite this year's holiday period being 2-1/2 days shorter.

The toll was reduced from 22 after police investigations showed a man who died on Tuesday after a crash just south of Otaki, 20km southwest of Levin, died of natural causes unrelated to the accident.

The 36-year-old man lost control of the car and it ran off the road when his fiancee was unable to regain control.

The pair, a Northland man and his Scottish fiancee, suffered minor injuries but the man died later in hospital.

Police national road safety manager Superintendent Steve Fitzgerald said further investigations over the next couple of months would identify the factors behind the holiday road deaths.

"So far as we can tell, it's mostly people driving at inappropriate speeds for the conditions.

"The amount of reports we had to communications centres and the Highway Patrol for dreadful driving behaviour was shocking. The answer is really in people's right feet," he told NZPA.

While the mean level of speed on the open roads had reduced by 1.2kmh, which typically provided a 3 to 5 per cent improvement in the road toll, Mr Fitzgerald said December's road toll showed it was not enough.

Thought was being given to include far more traffic offences that would result in demerit points against offenders' driving licences.

"We're probably killing 50 more people on the roads than we need to.

"... Demerit points are only taken for offences like speed, failing to stop at traffic lights, stop signs (and the like). But there are none for things like crossing a yellow line and cutting corners, that's ridiculous," he said.

He said police needed to continue pressure on bad driver behaviour.

"Speed is a hard habit to break, because people actually enjoy driving at speed ... That change will only happen on the back of enforcement."

Police would be discussing options of driver penalties with the Land Transport Safety Authority and the Ministry of Transport.

The official road toll for 2001 was 452, with December's reaching 57. However, last year's toll was 10 fewer than in 2000 and the lowest in 37 years.

- NZPA