Media statement | 1 January 2005

435 killed on New Zealand roads in 2004

Four-hundred and thirty-five people died on New Zealand roads last year - 26 fewer than in 2003 but seven percent more than in 2002, when the road toll reached a 40-year low of 405.

There have been nearly 5,000 deaths and 137,000 injuries from crashes on our roads over the past 10 years.

More than 34,000 people have been killed on the road since New Zealand's first known fatal crash in Christchurch in 1908. The deadliest year on our roads was 1973, when 843 were killed.

As recently as 1990 there were 729 road deaths in New Zealand. Since then annual road deaths have dropped by 40 percent, in spite of a 33 percent increase in the number of vehicles on the road and a 19 percent increase in population.

Government has set a target of no more than 300 road deaths and no more than 4,500 hospitalisations per year by 2010.

Preliminary analysis shows that driving too fast for the conditions and drink-driving were the two biggest factors in fatal crashes last year, with excessive speed a factor in 35 percent and drink-driving contributing to 30 percent. Twenty-three percent of the vehicle occupants killed last year were not wearing seatbelts.

A table with historical road crash statistics and fatality rates follows this statement.

For more information:

Andy Knackstedt
Media Manager, Safety
Land Transport New Zealand
0212 763 222

New Zealand Road Crash Data, 1990-2004