Police and other emergency services throughout New Zealand have attended eight fatal crashes so far where nine people have lost their lives.

Police have attended many other serious injury crashes on our road during this time too.

Superintendent Steve Greally, Director of Road Policing says that this number is incredibly frustrating.

There’s no excuse for any driver to be endangering their lives and those of others with unsafe behaviours.

There are many families that have been affected by bad decision making from behind the wheel so far this holiday.

Drivers need to be clear that if they are driving distracted, or speeding or driving impaired by alcohol or drugs, they may cause a crash and possibly cut someone’s life short.

Over the Christmas period last year, 21 lives were tragically lost in road crashes, and sadly as of 29 December this year we have lost nine people on our roads this holiday period.

Police and our road safety partners are very disappointed in this figure.

We will continue to have a co-ordinated, highly visible Police presence at high-risk locations including State Highways and rural areas, during peak travel periods right throughout the country.

If you are caught putting other people’s lives at risk, you can expect to be dealt with and don’t expect a warning.

“Road deaths and serious injuries are preventable. We all need to do better and stop accepting people dying on our roads is what happens when driving.

We have seen over time that our enforcement action has proven to deter people from driving dangerously, however road safety is something we must all take responsibility for.

We should all play our part to be safe on our roads, because so far, too many families have received tragic news this holiday period.

Motorists should expect to see Police anytime and anywhere over this holiday break to make sure that everyone travelling the roads and highways reaches their destination safely.

We can all work together to avoid unnecessary road trauma.

We will continue with our record levels of breath testing and we will continue to issue infringements as part of our prevention and enforcement role.

Ministry of Transport will be providing updates on holiday road toll data throughout the break.

Further background and historical crash data for the holiday period can be found at: https://www.transport.govt.nz/statistics-and-insights/safety-road-deaths/holiday-periods/

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