WELLINGTON, Jan 5 (Bernama-Xinhua) -- New Zealand saw a sharp drop in holiday road deaths to a record low of seven for the 2025/2026 Christmas-New Year period, down from 15 last year and 22 in 2023/2024, Xinhua reported Monday, citing the police.
Director of Road Policing, Superintendent Steve Greally called the decline "encouraging" but said police would not celebrate while people were still dying on the roads.
December 2025 recorded 17 road fatalities, the lowest number for that month in the last 45 years, Greally said, noting the figure is roughly half the 10-year average of 35 December deaths.
He said an "immense lift" in enforcement under Operation Open Roads over the past three years, targeting high-speed and other high-risk parts of the network, had likely contributed to the reduced road toll.
-- BERNAMA-XINHUA
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