Monthly overview of crash statistics December 2009

Download the monthly overview of crash statistics for December 2009 (PDF v7.0, 151kb)

The data presented here are provisional. Crash data as at – 13th January 2010.

• Thirty-six people died on New Zealand roads in December. This is 13 fewer than the number of deaths for December 2008 and is 10 fewer than the average December toll for the last five years. This was the lowest December road toll since 1965. (Monthly records are not available prior to 1965).

• In the 12 months to the end of December 2009, 384 people were killed on our roads. This is 19 more than the number of deaths in the 12 months to the end of December 2008. It is, however, the second lowest annual road toll since 1960.
• During December, 16 of the deaths were car or van drivers, 12 were car or van passengers, five were motorcyclists two were pedestrians and one was a truck driver.
• Twenty-eight of the 36 killed were in open road crashes. Nineteen were in single vehicle crashes in which a driver lost control of the vehicle or ran off the road and 10 were in head-on crashes.
• Of the 29 vehicle occupants killed, 11 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 December 2009. Reported injuries are for the 12 months to the end of June 2009.

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	134	58	192	70%
	Injured	4650	3732	8382	55%
Passengers	Killed	55	48	103	53%
	Injured	1471	1833	3304	45%
Motorcyclists	Killed	45	3	48	94%
	Injured	1154	248	1402	82%
Pedestrians	Killed	22	9	31	71%
	Injured	476	433	909	52%
Cyclists	Killed	7	1	8	88%
	Injured	602	207	809	74%
Other	Killed	2	0	2	100%
	Injured	35	17	52	67%
Total	Killed	265	119	384	69%
	Injured	8388	6470	14858	56%

Road user type by age group

Killed
Age group	Drivers	Passengers	Motorcyclists	Pedestrians	Cyclists	Other	Total
Under 15	0	17	0	3	1	1	22
15-24	46	45	7	6	1	0	105
25-34	34	10	16	2	2	0	64
35-44	22	7	13	5	1	0	48
45-54	34	3	9	3	1	0	50
55-64	16	9	3	6	1	0	35
65-74	16	4	0	0	1	0	21
75+	23	8	0	6	0	1	38
Unknown	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
Total	192	103	48	31	8	2	384

Injured
Age group	Drivers	Passengers	Motorcyclists	Pedestrians	Cyclists	Other	Total
Under 15	12	579	32	207	131	9	970
15-24	2692	1359	430	200	166	10	4857
25-34	1508	340	247	88	115	4	2302
35-44	1364	218	284	82	145	4	2097
45-54	1146	168	264	74	114	1	1767
55-64	766	168	87	52	67	6	1146
65-74	400	99	28	55	19	4	605
75+	389	84	10	68	7	11	569
Unknown	105	289	20	83	45	3	545
Total	8382	3304	1402	909	809	52	14858

Since 1990 the number of vehicles on the road has increased by 50 percent while Police reported injuries have dropped by 11 percent, road deaths have dropped by 49 percent and the number of days spent in hospital as a result of road crashes has dropped by 51 percent.

Crash outcomes and road user behaviour

Road crash data	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Deaths
No of road deaths	462	455	405	461	435	405	393	421	365	384
Deaths per 10,000 vehicles	1.8	1.7	1.5	1.6	1.5	1.3	1.3	1.3	1.1	1.2
Deaths per 100,000 people	12.1	11.8	10.3	11.5	10.7	9.9	9.5	10.0	8.6	8.9
Injuries
Reported injuries	10962	12368	13918	14372	13890	14456	15174	16013	15174	14858
Number hospitalised (all discharges)	5990	6700	6530	6540	6580	7210	7680	7440	7550	7929
Number hospitalised for over 1 day*	2846	2880	2750	2720	2710	2860	3020	3060	2880	2789
Number hospitalised for more than 3 days*	1815	1794	1740	1700	1700	1840	1900	1990	1880	1835
Behavioural measures	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Speed
Rural speed, % over 100 km/h	52%	47%	43%	39%	39%	36%	32%	29%	30%	29%
Rural speed, mean (km/h)	101.1	100.2	99.1	98	97.8	97.1	96.4	96.3	96.6	96.3
Rural speed, 85th percentile (km/h)	111	109	107	105	105	104	103	103	103	103
Alcohol
No. of drivers killed with excess alcohol	58	55	60	70	69	58	54	65	59	-
Percent of drivers killed with excess alcohol	21%	21%	24%	27%	27%	25%	24%	27%	28%	-
Occupant restraints
Seat belts worn by adults, front	90%	92%	92%	92%	94%	95%	95%	95%	95%	95%
Seat belts worn by adults, rear	76%	70%	78%	81%	86%	86%	89%	87%	87%	-
Children restrained, 0-14 years	87%	89%	94%	96%	97%	94%	96%	94%	97%	97%
Child restraints used, 0-4 years	79%	82%	86%	86%	87%	89%	91%	91%	90%	-
Cycle helmets
Cycle helmets worn, weekday	93%	94%	89%	89%	92%	91%	94%	92%	92%	92%

*Includes only the first stay in hospital

Note: Road deaths for 2009 are for the 12 months to the end of December 2009. Reported injuries for 2009 are for the 12 months to the end of June 2009.

Factors contributing to  rashes - ranked by social cost*

Notes:  Crash data for the 12 months to end of June 2009.

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.