Police are pleased that, for a second year in a row, the number of holiday road deaths has decreased.

The provisional number of road deaths for the 2025/2026 Christmas holiday period stands at seven, well below the 15 deaths recorded for the same period last year, and a far cry from the 22 lives lost during the 2023/2024 holiday period.

Director of Road Policing, Superintendent Steve Greally calls the decrease in road deaths encouraging, but says Police aren't celebrating.

"That's still seven deaths too many.

Seven families have lost loved ones, for no good reason, and instead of being able to celebrate during this holiday season, their lives have been changed forever.

"There are many contributing factors to lowering road trauma.

Under Operation Open Roads, there has been an immense lift in Police enforcement over the last three years, to address those areas of the network that have higher speeds and those others that have high risk.

This is likely to have played a part in the success over these years.

"We're not going to celebrate until we have zero deaths on our roads, but this is trending in the right direction.

"For the month of December alone there were 17 road fatalities – that's the lowest it's been for that month in the last 45 years.

The 10-year average for December road fatalities is 35, so to see that number halve in December 2025 is definitely encouraging.

"Even so, we want everyone to keep in mind that one death is one too many.

Our job continues and we won't be letting up our focus on road safety, not for a second."

Police will continue to target unsafe driving behaviour through road policing operations and patrols, especially in those higher risk crash areas, Superintendent Greally says.

"We're all responsible for road safety, and while our officers are doing all that they can on the roads to reduce the number of serious crashes, we need drivers to do their part.

"Make sure you are always driving free from alcohol, drugs, and fatigue.

Everyone in your vehicle needs to be safely buckled up, drive at a safe speed for the conditions – under the speed limit, and put your cellphone away at all times.

"Please keep yourself, and everyone else on the roads safe – have empathy for other road users and stay patient."

Residents, commuters, and other users of Crown Range Road are being asked to plan ahead next week and expect delays, while work is carried out to repair mesh fencing used to protect motorists from rockfall.

The worksite is located just north of the summit and on the Cardrona side. Key details drivers need to be aware of regarding repair works on Crown Range Road include:

Monday 15 and Tuesday 16 December

• 45 minute closures will be required each hour between 8.00am and 5.00pm, so crews can inspect the mesh fencing, then unpin it and remove dislodged rock debris from behind it.
• The road will be open for 15 minutes on the hour, every hour for vehicles to pass through the work site.

Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18 December

• Stop/go will be in place between 8.00am and 5.30pm, and motorists should expect potential delays of up to five minutes.

The extended 45 minute closures on Monday 15 December and Tuesday 16 December will ensure the area is safe and the protective mesh is never unpinned while motorists pass through the work site.

Access for emergency services will be available at all times.

Road access along State Highway 47 will be restored this evening, now that the fire in the area is fully contained.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand and Waka Kotahi are reopening the road with speed restrictions and potentially a single lane under stop/go controls from 9pm.

Incident Controller Assistant Commander Renee Potae says that reopening the road is a significant step for the community and visitors. Fire trucks are still likely to be moving through the area for at least another 24 hours, so she is asking all drivers to observe the traffic controls to ensure the safety of all road users.

The restrictions will be clearly signed and will apply between the intersection of SH47 and Mangatepopo Rd and approx. 1.5km north of the intersection of SH47 and SH48, as shown on the map.

One person is in critical condition following a crash on the South-Western Motorway near Māngere overnight.

The two-vehicle crash, involving a car and a truck, was reported at 4am on northbound lanes by the Coronation Road off-ramp.

The driver of the car was extracted from the vehicle and taken to Auckland City Hospital in a critical condition.

Two northbound lanes of the motorway were closed for a period while the Serious Crash Unit conducted a scene examination.

Enquiries into the crash remain ongoing.

Following a crash on State Highway 5, Tapapa this morning, trucks and heavy vehicles heading north between Rotorua and Tīrau will not be able to go past the intersection of Harwoods Road and State Highway 5.

A diversion for trucks and heavy vehicles is in place and drivers should follow the directions of emergency services staff.

Emergency services are responding to a serious crash on State Highway 5, Tapapa.

Police were advised at 10.45am that a car had collided with a tree, between Harwoods Road and Tapapa Road.

The car caught on fire following the crash and the fire is reported to have spread to nearby vegetation.

Motorists are advised to expect delays and should take alternative routes where possible.

At this stage there is no confirmed information regarding injuries.

Emergency services are attending a serious crash in Bucklands Crossing, Dunedin this evening.

Just before 7pm, Police were advised of the crash on Lamb Hill Road.

Initial indications are that there are serious injuries.

Lamb Hill Road is closed while emergency services work at the scene.

We ask motorists to expect delays and take an alternative route if possible.

No more waiting at a red light when there are no cars in sight - UC researchers are developing new technology that could cut traffic congestion and reduce the billions of dollars lost to delays each year.  

Smart Signals, an adaptive traffic signal control that is based on connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs), uses live data from these driver-less vehicles – sharing their location, speed and direction – allowing traffic lights to predict when vehicles will arrive at an intersection.  

Dr Wai Wong, from Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury (UC), is leading this new research and says the literature suggests about 30% of travel time could be saved when using CAV-based adaptive signal control. While CAVs can detect and share data on their surroundings, most human-driven vehicles remain unobservable, making real-time traffic estimation highly challenging.  

“The key innovation is considering a more realistic scenario where we have a mixed traffic environment, with CAVs and the conventional human-driven vehicles sharing the same network. The major challenges of this study are finding methods to estimate vehicle numbers and arrival times at intersections using incomplete information and adjusting traffic lights based on these uncertain estimates,” Dr Wong says.  

He says CAVs use their sensors (like cameras) to detect vehicles around them. When these connected vehicles share that information, it can also be used to estimate the presence and movement of nearby human-driven vehicles.  

“If we are able to estimate there are 10 cars coming from one side and one car coming from the other, we are going to give more green time to the approach with higher demand,” he says.  

The benefits go beyond cutting traffic congestion, and include environmental, economic and safety impacts.   

“A recent report showed the economic loss [of traffic congestion] in Auckland itself is 2.6 billion annually by 2026,” Dr Wong says.  

“Once we have more adaptive signal control that can be changed according to the demand, road capacity can be increased without the need for new major infrastructure.  

“With smoother traffic flow you don’t have to stop, which means lower emissions, cleaner air, and less respiratory disease. And because of smoother traffic, there is a lower chance of having a crash as well.”  

Dr Wong says that as advanced driving systems are being rolled out in countries such as the United States and China, and Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system is now available in Australia and New Zealand, more semi-autonomous vehicles are likely to arrive here soon.  

He says the system is being designed to work no matter how many CAVs are on the road - from just a few to all of them. “If the penetration rate (of CAVs) is 0, the system just falls back to fixed control or detector-based adaptive signal control, so it won’t do harm to the system.  

“In 10 to 15 years, if the penetration rate reaches around 20-30%, we should have a very efficient system with less stop-and-go, less traffic, cleaner air and more time for other activities such as more leisure time with family.”  

National road freight association Transporting New Zealand is welcoming a dramatic fall in temporary traffic management spending and excessive road cone use.

This is as the Minister of Transport shared data showing over a quarter of inspections found temporary traffic management on local roads was "completely redundant".

The Minister of Transport recently announced that the cost of managing traffic on state highway maintenance projects has fallen from 15.8 per cent to 8.8 per cent, while state highway capital project traffic management costs have dropped from six per cent to 2.3 per cent since the Government came into office.

This was achieved through NZTA moving from a prescriptive Code of Practice to a more pragmatic and risk-based NZ Guide to Temporary Traffic Management.

At Parliamentary Question Time today, Minister Bishop cited figures from quarter 3 this year that showed of 12,000 inspections of temporary traffic management on local roads, over 3,000 were found to be completely redundant. The Minister stated that people were driving past road cones and temporary traffic management that had no merit at all - a waste of driver time and taxpayer money.

Transporting New Zealand Head of Policy & Advocacy Billy Clemens says that the data confirms what road freight members have been reporting anecdotally for some time - there are too many cones on the roads where there don’t need to be.

"We congratulate the Minister and NZTA for taking practical steps to reduce temporary traffic management spend in a way that keeps road workers and road users safe. It’s also great to see councils being compelled to do the same."

"There is huge pressure on the National Land Transport Fund at the moment. We need all transport spending on maintenance and improvements to be achieving results."

"Redundant road cones and temporary traffic management needlessly slows vehicles down. With almost 93 per cent of the freight task being transported by road, unnecessary delays end up costing all businesses and consumers dearly."

"It also contributes to driver frustration, and can contribute to lead to unacceptable abuse and road rage directed at hard working road workers. With a pragmatic, risk-based approach we can keep road users safe and keep traffic moving."

National road freight association Transporting New Zealand has shared dashcam footage from members showing some hair-raising near-misses, and says that impatient driving is endangering lives.

Transporting New Zealand has been calling for members to submit footage of dangerous driving, highlighting the need for all road users to observe safe speeds, pass and merge safely, and observe appropriate following distances.

Transporting New Zealand Chief Executive Dom Kalasih says the footage shows just how dangerous impatient and reckless driving can be.

"Truck drivers spend more time on the roads than almost anyone else. Transporting New Zealand is consistently hearing concerns from our road freight members about incidents of impatient and unsafe driving they’re seeing while going about their work.

"The roads are the workplace for truck drivers, and that’s a workplace where a moment’s impatience or inattention can shatter lives forever."

He says the maximum speed limit for heavy vehicles is 90 km/h, even on sections of road with 110 km/h speed limits, requiring patience from all road users when overtaking and merging.

"Please be patient and wait until there’s a passing lane or a clear section of road before overtaking.

"Think about how far you have to go to get clear of a truck and possibly a trailer. The combined length of both can be up to 23 metres - that’s a significant distance to cover and you need a safety gap at the other side."

Transporting New Zealand has shared three videos where disaster was narrowly avoided.

Kalasih says that impatient or reckless driving is never worth the risk.

"It’s not worth risking your life or anybody else’s for the sake of saving a few minutes. That’s how horrible wrecks happen."

Videos

In Not the Foggiest there’s a van, a plan, and no visibility. You can almost hear the paint squeak as the over-taking vehicle ducks in. Submitted by a freight operator in Taupo.

https://youtu.be/5SYKXCkBvrY

The next video was recorded near Waipawa in the Hawke’s Bay. A stock truck is carrying a load of bulls and has to swing wide to get into a driveway. Just as one of the team mentions what a tricky spot it is with some people trying to pass on the outside, a vehicle decides it will try a different approach. Some dialogue has been redacted.

https://youtu.be/9cDEQZWq98I

This next merging incident took place about 10 minutes outside of Rotorua.

https://youtu.be/T_JPm4WMFBU

Reporting dangerous driving

- If you believe someone's driving is dangerous enough to be life-threatening, call the Police on 111.

- You can call -555 from a mobile phone to report road incidents which are urgent but not life-threatening.
 

The release today of a study on congestion in Auckland adds to the urgency around the introduction of time of use charging, says the Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA).

Auckland’s Cost of Congestion white paper, released by Mayor Wayne Brown, found congestion will cost Auckland $2.6 billion a year by 2026 - factoring in the cost of lost time, as well as impacts like reduced business investment and consumer spending.

EMA Head of Advocacy Alan McDonald says there finally seems to be the political will to implement time of use charging in New Zealand’s largest city.

The government’s Time of Use Charging Bill will be read in Parliament this month, and Auckland’s Mayor has come out strongly in support.

"The EMA has long advocated for time of use charging as it will help maximise the use of existing motorway and arterial corridors around the slowly choking greater city area," says McDonald.

"The EMA commissioned NZIER to conduct a similar survey in 2019, which put the cost of congestion to Auckland's economy at up to $1.3 billion annually.

"Things have clearly gotten worse.

"The local traffic modelling in the new report shows Aucklanders now sit in traffic for 29 million hours a year.

"Congestion charging is intended to reduce this traffic and introduce more certainty into travel times on our roading network, but it will also improve air quality and help to fund public transport.

"This means that allowing businesses and tradespeople who need their vehicles to effectively deliver goods and services around the city will have flow-on effects.

"There are also social benefits for residents who need their vehicles to make doctor’s appointments or drop kids at sport practices.

"Moves to charge commuters who travel at peak times will encourage many to use public transport and help the city derive maximum benefit from the City Rail Link when it comes online in early 2026."

In central London, congestion charging was introduced in 2003 and has helped cut traffic by around 15%.

In Stockholm, where congestion charging was introduced in 2007, it has reduced traffic within the city centre by about 20%.

"Congestion charging has been shown to work around the world and the case for implementing it in Auckland grows by the day," says McDonald.

"It’s time to put a solid case to residents that time of use charging has social as well as business benefits.

"It needs to be done right, but it also needs to be done with some urgency if we are going to unlock productivity in New Zealand."

All lanes have now reopened following an earlier crash on the North-Western Motorway near St Lukes.

Police would like to thank motorists for their patience while the scene was cleared.