SunLive – Labor weekend death toll ended with zero fatalities

Police say the official Labor Day weekend holiday period has ended and no one has died on New Zealand’s roads.

This is a new record for this period. The previous lowest was in 2013, when one person died and 109 were injured.

The worst holiday weekend for deaths and serious injuries was in 1983, when 13 people died and 248 were injured.

According to the Ministry of Transport, six people died last year, five people in 2022, six people in 2021 and eight people in 2020.

said Inspector Steve Greally from the National Road Policing Centre Morning report zero deaths was an “amazing result”.

Greal said it was a combination of a huge effort by many people, but there is still a lot of work to be done when it comes to road safety.

“We need to look at the systemic level to properly understand it in the long term, certainly in terms of sustainability.

“From a policing point of view, policing is part of that system and from our point of view over the last two years we have made a significant, quite significant change in the way we deploy our people.”

Greally said 73 per cent of accidents occurred on open and rural roads, so it made sense for people to be in those areas where the most damage occurred.

He said law enforcement in such areas had doubled in the last few years, contributing to “overall deterrence.”

Greally said Morning report weather warnings may have had an impact as some people chose to stay at home rather than be on the roads.

This didn’t discourage everyone, however, and he said he saw some people driving at “terrible speeds” on Wellington’s Transmission Gully in the “common rain”, which didn’t look good.

Earlier, New Zealand Transport Agency spokesman Andy Knackstedt warned people not to become complacent on the roads.

He said that even if there were no fatalities, the impact of the accidents could have lifelong consequences.

“We’re just asking people to do the basics – drive and travel at safe speeds, share the ride, make sure they’re well-rested and just take as much time as they need to get home safely.”

The ministry cited seven people in previous holiday road tolls this year he died during Easterfour died during the King’s Birthday and one during Matariki.

-RNZ.