Monthly overview of crash statistics December 2011

Last updated on 19/03/2012 12:26 p.m. 

The data presented here are provisional. Crash data as at 10 January 2012.

  • Thirty-three people died on New Zealand roads in December. This is 1 more death than December 2010 and 8 fewer than the average December road toll for the last 5 years.

Graph showing road deaths in December from 1990 to 2011.

  • In the 12 months to the end of December 2011, 284 people died on our roads. This is 91 fewer deaths than in the 12 months to the end of December 2010 and is the lowest annual road toll since 1952.
  • During December, 15 of the deaths were car or van drivers, 9 were passengers, 5 were pedestrians, 2 were motorcyclists and 2 were truck drivers.
  • Twenty-seven of the 33 deaths were in open road crashes. Thirteen were in single vehicle crashes in which a driver lost control of the vehicle or ran off the road, 9 were in head-on collisions and 5 were in collisions with pedestrians.
  • Of the 26 vehicle occupants who died, 9 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 2011.
Reported injuries are for the 12 months to the end of July 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 3918 3305 7223 54%
Passengers Killed 34 28 62 55%
Injured 1275 1484 2759 46%
Motorcyclists Killed 32 1 33 97%
Injured 976 243 1219 80%
Pedestrians Killed 19 12 31 61%
Injured 502 402 904 56%
Cyclists Killed 9 0 9 100%
Injured 614 210 824 75%
Other Killed 0 0 0 -
Injured 31 18 49 63%
Total Killed 201 83 284 71%
Injured 7316 5662 12978 56%
Road user type by age group - killed
Killed
Age group Drivers Passengers Motorcyclists Pedestrians Cyclists Other Total
Under 15 0  9 0 1 1 0 11
15-24 43 25 4 9 1 0 82
25-34 19 5 1 2 0 0 27
35-44 22 4 14 3 1 0 44
45-54 19 5 8 5 0 0 37
55-64 14 3 4 3 3 0 27
65-74 18 3 1 1 1 0 24
75+ 14 8 1 7 2 0 32 
Unknown 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total 149 62 33 31 9 0 284

Road user type by age group - injured
Injured
Age group Drivers Passengers Motorcyclists Pedestrians Cyclists Other Total
Under 15 10 482 10 238 140 8 888 
15-24 2162 1077 296 220 159 9 3923
25-34 1316 319 199 100 126 1 2061
35-44 1172 174 238 52 131 1 1768
45-54 1013 171 274 71 119 3 1651
55-64 714 142 134 64 74 2 1130
65-74 387 83 39 46 32 4 591
75+ 364 90 11 58 4  19 546
Unknown 85 221 18 55  39  2 420
Total 7223 2759 1219 904 824 49 12978

Graph showing road deaths in the 12 months to December 2011, and injuries in the 12 months to July 2011.

Graph showing types of road users killed in the 12 months to December 2011 and injured in the 12 months to July 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 52 percent, while Police reported injuries have dropped by 22 percent, road deaths have dropped by 63 percent and the number of days spent in hospital as a result of road crashes has dropped by 60 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 405 461 435 405 393 421 366 384 375 284
Deaths per 10,000 vehicles 1.5 1.6 1.5 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.1 1.2 1.2 0.88
Deaths per 100,000 people 10.3 11.5 10.7 9.9 9.5 10.0 8.6 8.9 8.6 6.4

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 12978
Number hospitalised (all discharges) 6530 6540 6580 7210 7680 7440 7570 7590 7350 6974 
Number hospitalised for over one day* 2750 2720 2710 2860 3020 3060 2880 2690 2580 2487
Number hospitalised for over three days* 1740 1700 1700 1840 1900 1990 1880 1740 1590 1578

*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%

Note: Road deaths for 2011 are for the 12 months to the end of December 2011. Reported injuries for 2011 are for the 12 months to the end of July 2011. Hospitalisations for 2011 are for the 12 months to the end of July 2011.

Factors contributing to crashes – ranked by social cost*

Graph showing factors contributing to crashes

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


Related: Crashes, Road Toll, Land