(Michael Cunningham).

Holiday road toll leaves Police "gutted"

Author: Newstalk ZB staff ,
Publish Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2016, 11:26AM

UPDATED 11.58am Police are "gutted" at the high number of people killed on the roads over the long weekend.

LISTEN ABOVE: National road policing manager Superintendent Steve Greally talks to Mike Hosking

"We were going into this Queen's Birthday weekend knowing that five people lost their lives last year," said national road policing manager Superintendent Steve Greally. "If we got anywhere near that, that was going to be a big failure for motorists as a whole.

"But of course, 11, that's more than double. Spare a thought for those families who are without their loved ones who were otherwise fit and well.

"Gutted is what we are."

MORE: Deadliest Queen's Birthday weekend in 27 years

The 11 deaths are a result of eight crashes which occurred in Southern, Canterbury, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Wellington, Auckland and Northland Police districts over the long weekend.

Mr Greally said there was no clear explanation for the surge in deaths.

"We've got our crash investigators out at the scenes and that takes a little while to measure up and sort through.

"But it wouldn't surprise me if your usual suspects were involved -- alcohol, speed and a big one: inattention.

“The sad part is that crashes like this are preventable," said Mr Greally.

Mr Greally said the weekend's road toll indicated that police needed to carry on working to spread the road safety message to all parts of the community, including at schools.

"You put your belt on, it's so damn easy to do, but people aren't doing it. And it's a 40 per cent chance of living through [a crash].

"We've really got to continue with our road safety partners to advertise, put the messages out there wherever we can."

Mr Greally said Police had a highly visible and active presence on the road across the country over the weekend, focusing on high risk driving behaviour using a mixture of prevention and enforcement activities.

As with other long weekends, the police focused on speed, those driving too fast for the conditions, as well as seatbelt non-compliance, cellphone use and driving while impaired, as these are the high risk behaviours that we know continue to kill and injure far too many of us on the roads.

“But we cannot be everywhere and we cannot do it alone,” said Mr Greally.

“We need the public's help to keep the roads safe.

"Not all roads are created equal – many of New Zealand’s roads are unforgiving and leave no room for mistakes.”

General manager of motoring affairs Mike Noon said making sure our roads are up to scratch is important.

"There's a lot of money being spent on the roads at the moment and it is the roads itself which actually, to a large extent, determines the outcome of a crash."

The official Queen's Birthday weekend period began at 4pm on Friday 3 June and ended 6am on Tuesday 7 June.

New Zealand's worst ever Queen's Birthday Weekend on the roads was in 1973, when 24 were killed.

"Thankfully we've come a very long way since then and the prevention and education approach that Police has taken towards road safety has led to a significant reduction in road related trauma, but there is still clearly more that all of us can do to reduce this further," said Mr Greally.

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