KEY POINTS:
The road toll for 2006 could finish below 400 deaths for the first time in 43 years, although the holiday season began tragically with a crash that claimed three teenage lives on Auckland's Northwestern Motorway early on Christmas Eve.
The Police Complaints Authority will investigate the crash in which the trio were killed after a high-speed police chase from central Auckland to the Western Springs/St Lukes offramp, where the teenagers' car left the road and smashed into a tree.
The dead were the 16-year-old driver, Lance David Duff of Laingholm, and his passengers, Walter James Russell, 17, of Glen Eden, and Cheyenne Freeman, 19, of Avondale.
Their car was stopped by police in central Auckland about 4am on Sunday, Christmas Eve, after they were spotted sharing a cask of wine.
But it took off and was chased along the Northwestern Motorway with its headlights off before crashing through a fence and flying through the air, into a tree and down a bank.
The year's road toll stood at 379 yesterday afternoon, 14 fewer than at the same time last year.
The full 2005 toll of 404 was the lowest since 1963, but the police admit there remains much to be done to reach the Government's road safety target of no more than 300 annual deaths by 2010.
The Auckland teens were by yesterday the only people killed on the roads so far this holiday period, which began on Friday afternoon and ends early on Wednesday, January 3. The Christmas-New Year period last year claimed 22 lives. That was double the previous summer's tally, but still well below the deadliest holiday toll, of 37 in 1972-73.
National road policing manager Superintendent Dave Cliff said although it would be a struggle to meet the 2010 target, it would be important to end this year below 400 deaths.
"That would be a major psychological step for us," he said, noting that there were far fewer cars on the roads in 1963, when vehicle crashes caused 394 deaths.
Faster and more powerful cars saw the figure more than double in 10 years to 843 in 1973, the worst road toll ever and the impetus for the first drink-driving, anti-speeding and pro-seatbelt campaigns.
Mr Cliff said the Christmas Eve crash appeared to show yet again the potentially tragic results of mixing alcohol with high speeds.
Despite safety improvements since the 1970s, it remained a chilling statistical likelihood that 10 more people would die before New Year's Day and 120 would go to hospital.
"That represents a horrendous number of grieving families and it's all entirely preventable."
* A 28-year-old man is in Wairarapa Hospital with serious leg injuries after a police chase yesterday.
His car failed to take a bend about 3.30pm, hit a ditch, became airborne and crashed on the outskirts of Masterton. He was thrown out.
The patrol car chasing him had earlier spotted him speeding and did a u-turn to pursue him.
