New Zealand holiday road toll: 20 fatalities

January 4, 2006 The New Zealand Christmas – New Year road toll has climbed to 9 more than the 11 deaths in the entire period last year, after a Korean man became the 20th victim when his car ended up in a canal.

The official Christmas-New Year road toll runs between 4pm on 24th December and 6am on 4th January.

The final tally still needs to be officially confirmed by the police; this should happen in the next 1 to 2 months. Police National Road Safety Manager, Inspector John Kelly, says “the final toll may fluctuate, depending on the outcome of investigations into the crashes that took place."

The fatalities are: eight passengers, seven drivers, three motorcyclists and two pedestrians.

"The toll is one of the highest” says Andy Knackstedt, from LTNZ, “it's certainly nearly double the number that died on the roads [in the holiday period] last year”.

In 2005, for the full year, 404 people died on New Zealand roads, which is 31 less than the previous year.