Police have urged safer driving after four people were killed in crashes across the North Island over the Easter long weekend.
The official Easter holiday road toll period was from 4pm on Thursday to 6am this morning.
Inspector Peter McKennie of the National Road Policing Centre said four road deaths over the Easter was a “relatively low number”, but the reality was “any death on the road is one too many”.
“Our hearts go out to the loved ones of those who died. Their lives will never be the same again,” he said in a media release.
“Police will continue to work hard to target those behaviours on the road that contribute to serious injury or death: speeding, not wearing appropriate restraints, distraction and impairment.”
The first victim of the Easter road toll died at the scene of a single-vehicle crash on State Highway 12 in Ruawai in Northland on Good Friday.
On Saturday, one person died in a crash involving a car and a cyclist at Haumoana in Hawke’s Bay. On Easter Monday, a person was killed and three others were injured in a two-vehicle crash east of New Plymouth in Taranaki.
Later that afternoon, a person died in a two-vehicle crash at Mangakino, northwest of Taupō.
Last Easter, seven people died on New Zealand roads, the highest since 2021 when the toll reached nine people.
