The Anzac weekend road toll rose to 11 after a person died in a crash at a crash in Ngāruawāhia on Monday night.
Photo: RNZ
The vehicle hit a power line on Saulbrey Road just before 8pm. Three other occupants were transported to hospital with a range of injuries.
Police said it had been a heartbreaking weekend on the road and was unacceptable that so many lives were lost over a few days.
Police Assistant Commissioner Bruce O'Brien said it was frustrating to see the same reasons behind crashes and fatalities.
The most common causes were speeding, being impaired by drugs or alcohol, distracted by devices and not wearing seatbelts, he said.
If road users improved these four areas, New Zealand would see a "massive" reduction in the number of road deaths.
"I think as a country we really need to take a step back and look at what's just happened over the last few days to 11 people," O'Brien said.
"First of all, we need to stop thinking about it as a toll, because it's not a toll, these are humans."
O'Brien said while police were doing their best to keep the road toll to a minimum, drivers also needed to take responsibility for their behaviour.
"We need talk to our whānau, we need talk to our friends and young people about what is safe behaviour out on the road."
The weekend toll included four teenagers in Invercargill. Konnor Steele, Indaka Rouse and Kyah Kennedy from Bluff, all aged 16, and O Maruhuatau Otuwhare Tawhai, 17, from Invercargill, died when their ute collided with a concrete truck on Friday.
It had been raining near the time of the crash, which happened on a 50 km/h zone on one of Invercargill's main thoroughfares.
Kaitiaki o Ara, Students Against Dangerous Driving (SADD) said until a few years ago there had been a downward trend in crashes, injuries and deaths involving young people.
However national manager Donna Govorko said the data was now tracking the other way.
"Up until a few years ago, we were actually quite celebrating that youth crashes and trauma and road deaths and serious injuries were actually coming down," she told Morning Report.
"Unfortunately - it has been a little bit since after Covid happened - it's actually going the wrong way."
Govorko said road safety messaging for young people needed to come from their peers.
