Photo: 123RF
The road toll for the Christmas holiday period just ended is on track to be the lowest in years.
The unconfirmed toll currently stands at 13, compared to 22 last year and 19 the year before that.
That figure may increase, however, with one person still in a critical condition on Thursday night after a crash near Morrinsville, and a number of crashes around the country overnight.
They include a single-vehicle crash in Havelock North about 10 pm on Thursday, when a car went down a bank, killing one person and seriously injuring two others.
If the toll was confirmed, it would be the lowest since Christmas 2020, when 11 people died on New Zealand roads during the holiday period.
The official holiday period started at 4 pm on Christmas Eve and ended at 6 am Friday.
Overall, the road toll for the year just ended was also well down on previous years.
According to the Ministry of Transport, the provisional toll for 2024 was 291 - the lowest since 253 deaths were recorded more than a decade ago in 2013.
The worst-ever toll was recorded in 1973 when 843 people died on New Zealand roads, at a time when the country's population was significantly lower than it is now.
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