Holiday Road Toll

The Christmas/New Year holiday road toll period began at 4pm on Thursday 24 December and ended at 6am on Tuesday 5 January.

The holiday period was 11.6 days. Last year the 2008/09 holiday period was exactly the same - from Dec 24 to Jan 5 (11.6 days).

Read Transport Minister Steven Joyce’s pre-Christmas media release and safe driving tips. 

Read Transport Minister Steven Joyce’s 1 Jan 2010 road toll media release.

Read Transport Minister Steven Joyce’s 5 Jan 2010 provisional holiday road toll media release.

The holiday road toll has risen to 13 following the death of a driver in the Far North District from a crash that occurred on 4 January.

Provisional 2009/10 statistics

During the 2009/2010 Christmas holiday period there were 12 fatal crashes resulting in 13 deaths.

The deaths included:

• 6 drivers
• 5 passengers
• 1 motor cycle rider
• 1 pedestrian

All but one of the 13 deaths were as a result of crashes that occurred on the open road.

Note: Total injury crash statistics will not be available for several months. This allows time for crash investigations and reports to be completed and statistics to be collated.

2009/10 holiday period road deaths by local government region:

Statistics facts

• The lowest Christmas holiday period road toll on record occurred during 1959/60 when 8 deaths were recorded. 9 deaths were recorded in 1966/67.
• The highest Christmas holiday period road toll on record occurred during 1972/73 when 37 deaths were recorded.
• The earliest year for which records for holiday periods are available is 1956/57.
• During the 2008/2009 Christmas holiday period there were 22 fatal crashes and 310 reported injury crashes. Those crashes resulted in 25 deaths, 82 serious injuries and 373 minor injuries.
• The deaths included:
  11 drivers
  8 passengers
  5 motor cycle riders (including pillion passengers)
  1 pedestrian

Historical Christmas period statistics

The historical Christmas period road crash statistics table shows data from 1958 to 2009.

Download the historical Christmas period statistics table (PDF v7.0, 35.7kb).

Holiday period road toll by region

The following table shows the number of road deaths and reported injuries by local government region for the last nine Christmas /New Year periods from 2000/2001 to 2008/2009.  

Useful information