Lowest road toll since 1956

Fairfax

CRASHING DOWN: Sixty-five fewer people died on the roads this year then last, making it the lowest road toll since 1956.

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Exorbitant petrol prices during the year probably contributed to the lowest road toll in more than 50 years, police say.

By last night, the road toll for 2008 stood at 358 65 fewer deaths than last year and the lowest toll since 1956, when 329 people died and there were 80 per cent fewer vehicles on the roads than today's 3.2 million.

National road policing Inspector Rob Morgan said he was encouraged by the fall in road deaths but said police "did not want to get too carried away".

"We see these things as trends over the long term."

"The road toll has been coming down since the early 90s it's almost halved since then so we see this as further confirmation that what we are doing is working."

Mr Morgan said police would continue to take a proactive approach to stop deaths on the roads.

"If you do nothing, nothing will change. We can't sit there it's still a lot of deaths."

A combination of driver education, improved road and vehicle engineering and police enforcement may have helped bring the road toll down as well as higher petrol costs, he said.

"It is possible petrol costs contributed. We have certainly considered that but no one has been able to quantify that with us yet."

Mr Morgan said statistics on how much less traffic was on the roads in 2008 and how that may have affected the toll had not yet been calculated, and it could take up to a year to complete.

New Zealand Transport Agency spokesman Andy Knackstedt said though it was nice to end the year on a record low road toll, more than 350 people had still lost their lives.

The rise in petrol prices did "tend to have an influence" but it was hard to pinpoint a definite answer. "We can't point to a magic bullet."

But he agreed improvements in roading, better safety features in cars and people driving more safely were possible reasons for the lower toll.

More than 35,000 people have been killed on the roads since New Zealand's first known fatal crash in Christchurch in 1908, when a car swerved to avoid a horse and hit a tram.

The deadliest year on our roads was 1973, when 843 people were killed, and in 1990 there were 729 road deaths. Since then, annual road deaths have nearly halved, in spite of a 42 per cent increase in the number of vehicles on the road and a 21 per cent rise in population.

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