The Easter road toll was the worst in 16 years after a seriously injured cyclist had her life support turned off overnight, taking the number of deaths to 10.
The cyclist, a 51-year-old woman, was injured in a crash on Old West Coast Rd in Yaldhurst, Christchurch, about 11.30am on Saturday.
National Police Headquarters' Inspector John McClelland said many of the deaths had been preventable, making the situation all the more frustrating.
"I think there are people making bad decisions, particularly with overtaking - not allowing enough room to get past vehicles and things like that," he told Radio New Zealand.
"There've been a few fatalities involving suspected speed and alcohol, and you know we've been pushing that for years now and people are still prepared to take the risk which is really disappointing."
The official Easter road toll period ended at 6am today.
In the last smash, two cars collided under the Waterview motorway overbridge, in Auckland, last night.
Five people - two of them in a serious condition - were taken to hospital.
Road policing manager for Waitemata, Superintendent John Kelly, said the series of crashes since the holiday period began would have far-reaching consequences.
"Somewhere along the lines there's going to be a class with no teacher, or the kids will turn up to football practice on Tuesday night and there'll be no coach.
"All those ripples will go out through society and all of it is such a waste. It's all preventable, [with] a little bit of common sense and patience."
Mr Kelly said many people tended to dismiss crashes where no one had been killed.
But the harsh reality was that many of those involved in road accidents would face a long road toward recovery.
"[For] everyone killed you'll have [around] five or six people in hospital. People think the crash is all cleared up and the road's all cleared up and it's all over. Well it's not all over. Because the impact of crashes, even if no one's killed, lasts for a long, long time," Mr Kelly said.
"You talk to whoever has been involved in a crash whose been badly injured. They'll talk about two years before they're fully recovered ... it takes a long, long time to recover from. There's a lot of grief, inconvenience and that sort of thing for a long time."
Among those in hospitals last night were six people - four of them children - who were flung from a van when it failed to take a bend on State Highway 6 in Garston, south of Queenstown, yesterday.
The van rolled several times and down a bank, hitting a tree about 10.45am.
In another accident yesterday, a woman was airlifted to hospital in a serious condition after a truck and a van collided in the Upper Buller Gorge on State Highway 6.
And a 17-year-old girl was taken to Hawkes Bay Regional Hospital in a critical condition with serious head injuries after the car she was in drifted left off the road and rolled.
Others are in hospital after accidents on Friday and Saturday including the parents of an 6-month-old baby killed in Kawerau. Police originally said the baby was 11-months-old.
Two other men are also in hospital after that accident.
Meanwhile police are struggling to track down the next of kin of a young man from Kuwait - believed to be a student in his 20s - killed in an accident on Sunday on the Desert Road, just north of Waiouru.
The man who died instantly at the scene was one of up to five people in a vehicle which crashed into another car, killing a passenger in that car.
Five people were taken to hospital from that crash.
Seven people were injured - three of them seriously - after a crash on Auckland's Southern Motorway on Good Friday.
Easter 2010 holiday road toll (4pm Thursday - 6am Tuesday)
View Easter 2010 holiday road toll in a larger map
- With NZPA
