Monthly overview of crash statistics November 2011

Last updated on 19/03/2012 12:23 p.m. 

The data presented here are provisional. Crash data as at 7 December 2011.

Nineteen people died on New Zealand roads in November. This is 16 fewer deaths than November 2010, 10 fewer than the average November road toll for the last five years and the lowest November road toll on record. Monthly records begin in 1965.

Graph showing road deaths in November from 1990 to 2011.

  • To the end of November this year 253 people have died on New Zealand roads. This is 90 fewer than at the same time last year and the lowest first eleven months on record. Monthly records begin in 1965.
  • In the 12 months to the end of November 2011, 285 people died on our roads. This is 92 fewer deaths than in the 12 months to the end of November 2010.
  • During November, 11 of the deaths were car or van drivers, 3 were passengers, 3 were motorcyclists, 1 was a pedestrian and 1 was a cyclist.
  • Twelve of the 19 deaths were in open road crashes. Seven were in single vehicle crashes in which a driver lost control of the vehicle or ran off the road, 6 were in head-on collisions and 4 were in intersection collisions.
  • Of the 14 vehicle occupants who died, 4 were not restrained at the time of the crash.

Deaths and Police reported injuries by age, sex and type of road user

Deaths are for the 12 months to the end of November 2011. Reported injuries are for the 12 months to the end of June 2011.

Note: Preliminary fatal crash reports are submitted within 24 hours of a crash related death. Full injury crash reports are submitted only after the crash investigations are completed, so there is a lag in the reporting of injury crashes.


Road user type by sex
Male Female Total % male
Drivers Killed 107 42 149 72%
Injured 3996 3410 7406 54%
Passengers Killed 35 28 63 56%
Injured 1321 1541 2862 46%
Motorcyclists Killed 34 1 35 97%
Injured 984 249 1233 80%
Pedestrians Killed 18 11 29 62%
Injured 519 422 941 55%
Cyclists Killed 9 0 9 100%
Injured 626 213 839 75%
Other Killed 0 0 0 -
Injured 29 17 46 63%
Total Killed 203 82 285 71%
Injured 7475 5852 13327 56%
Road user type by age group - killed
Killed
Age group Drivers Passengers Motorcyclists Pedestrians Cyclists Other Total
Under 15 1 9 0 1 1 0 12
15-24 43 28 4 8 1 0 84
25-34 19 5 1 2 0 0 27
35-44 21 6 16 4 1 0 48
45-54 20 4 8 4 0 0 36
55-64 15 1 4 3 3 0 26
65-74 17 3 1 2 1 0 24
75+ 13 7 1 5 2 0 28
Unknown 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total 149 63 35 29 9 0 285

Road user type by age group - injured
Injured
Age group Drivers Passengers Motorcyclists Pedestrians Cyclists Other Total
Under 15 12 514 11 246 141 7 931
15-24 2214 1110 303 221 165 10 4023
25-34 1335 323 205 100 135 1 2099
35-44 1216 182 242 57 131 1 1829
45-54 1042 171 274 81 114 3 1685
55-64 730 146 132 71 79 2 1160
65-74 408 85 38 46 29 5 611
75+ 361 92 11 58 5 15 542
Unknown 88 239 17 61 40 2 447
Total 7406 2862 1233 941 839 46 13327


Graph showing road deaths in the 12 months to November 2011, and injuries in the 12 months to June 2011.
Graph showing types of road users killed in the 12 months to November 2011 and injured in the 12 months to June 2011.

Trends

Graph showing road crash casualties and the vehicle fleet compared to 1990.
Since 1990 the number of vehicles on the road has increased by 51 percent while Police reported injuries have dropped by 20 percent, road deaths have dropped by 62 percent and the number of days spent in hospital as a result of road crashes has dropped by 59 percent.

Crash outcomes and road user behaviour

Deaths
Road crash data 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Number of road deaths 405 461 435 405 393 421 366 385 375 285
Deaths per 10,000 vehicles 1.5 1.6 1.5 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.1 1.2 1.2 0.9
Deaths per 100,000 people 10.3 11.5 10.7 9.9 9.5 10.0 8.6 8.9 8.6 6.5

Note: Road deaths for 2011 are for the 12 months to the end of November 2011.

Injuries
Road crash data 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Reported injuries 13918 14372 13890 14456 15174 16013 15317 14625 14031 13327
Number hospitalised (all discharges) 6530 6540 6580 7210 7680 7440 7570 7590 7350 7041
Number hospitalised for over one day* 2750 2720 2710 2860 3020 3060 2880 2690 2580 2491
Number hospitalised for over three days* 1740 1700 1700 1840 1900 1990 1880 1740 1590 1565

*Includes only the first stay in hospital

Note: Reported injuries for 2011 are for the 12 months to the end of June 2011. Hospitalisations for 2011 are for the 12 months to the end of June 2011.

Speed
Behavioural measures 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Rural speed, % over 100 km/h 43% 39% 39% 36% 32% 29% 30% 29% 29% -
Rural speed, mean (km/h) 99.1 98 97.8 97.1 96.4 96.3 96.6 96.3 96.2 -
Rural speed, 85th percentile (km/h) 107 105 105 104 103 103 103 103 103 -

Alcohol
Behavioural measures 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Number of drivers killed with excess alcohol 60 70 69 58 54 65 59 66 68 -
Percent of drivers killed with excess alcohol 24% 27% 27% 25% 24% 27% 28% 28% 30% -

Occupant restraints
Behavioural measures 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Seat belts worn by adults, front 92% 92% 94% 95% 95% 95% 95% 95% 96% 96%
Seat belts worn by adults, rear 78% 81% 86% 86% 89% 87% 87% 87% 88% -
Children restrained, 0-14 years 94% 96% 97% 94% 96% 94% 97% 97% 97% -
Child restraints used, 0-4 years 86% 86% 87% 89% 91% 91% 90% 91% 93% -

Cycle helmets
Behavioural measure 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Cycle helmets worn, weekday 89% 89% 92% 91% 94% 92% 92% 92% 93% 93%

Factors contributing to crashes - ranked by social cost*

Graph showing factors contributing to crashes.

Notes: Crash data for the 12 months to end of June 2011.

Since there can be several contributing factors for a single crash the figures represented in this graph add to more than 100 percent.

* Social cost calculations include loss of life or life quality, loss of output due to injuries, medical and rehabilitation costs, legal and court costs and property damage.