Road Safety Week starts today with a message to motorists about driving safely after eight deaths in Northland road crashes this year.

The call comes from Northland Road Safety Trust Manager Ashley Johnston.

“It’s about staying focused on what is ahead you and around you when driving because that can be the difference between life and death,” she said.

Last year Northland’s road toll stood at 27 but more than a thousand hospitalisations linked to road crashes took place.

Northland Road Safety Trust Manager Ashley Johnston. Photo / NZME

This year’s Road Safety Week (12-18 May) urges the public to become a road safety hero, recognising everyone plays a role in making journeys and roads safer.

Johnston said any road death is one too many.

“We say it all the time but it comes down to driving to the conditions – especially with winter on the horizon – not speeding, wearing seatbelts, ensuring children are in restraints."

Johnston said too many motorists continued to drive distracted or under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

“The impact of road crashes can last a lifetime and destroy families.”

Northland Road Policing manager Inspector Anne-Marie Fitchett said police and its partners were working hard to reduce the road toll.

Northland Road Policing manager Inspector Anne-Marie Fitchett. Photo / NZME

“We’ve had eight people die on our roads this year compared with 18 at this time last year.

“While that is a vast improvement, every one of those people had families and people that cared for them who are now grieving.”

She credited ramped-up enforcement efforts, specifically around speed and impaired driving, for improving road safety, but said motorists needed to step up too.

“In 2024, 22% of our deaths and serious injuries involved alcohol. Similarly, speed contributed to 33% of deaths and serious injuries on Northland roads in 2024, while 24% of those killed or seriously injured in light vehicles in Northland weren’t wearing a seatbelt.”

Fitchett said Northland’s figures were the highest in the country.

“If we choose not to wear a seatbelt, we will have minimal protection in a crash. If we drive while impaired, we can’t possibly hope to react in the way we need to. And if we speed, there is less time to react.

“Let’s learn these lessons now rather than the devastating hard way.”

The annual Road Safety Hero fun relay/walk around Hātea Loop, Whangārei, will take place on Friday at 1pm, starting at Pūtahi Park.

“It is a day full of fun, awareness, and a powerful message,” Johnston said.

The event aimed to show support for road safety awareness and honour the people making the roads safer.

People are invited to dress like a road safety hero with reflectors, capes and any other creativity, Johnston said.