New Zealand’s Deadliest Roads

The Kiwirap site, a joint venture between police, the AA and transport authorities, shows New Zealand's deadliest roads all based on the number of fatal and serious injury crashes between 2002-2006.

Waikato and Auckland had the worst roads but this is where the main population of New Zealand is situated. The Napier-Hastings road, part of the highway between Wellington and Levin, and SH1 near the airport in Christchurch were also considered "high risk".

Wellington came out the best.

The road toll for New Zealand in 2009 was 384 out of a population of around 4 million with 1.5 million living in the Auckland/Waikato area.

Most of New Zealand roads are two way which means the only thing that seperates you from the oncoming traffic is a white or yellow line.

This is something interesting from www.nzier.org.nz

"One of the approaches used in the transport sector is to ask New Zealanders what they would be willing to pay to reduce the risk of premature death due to road crashes. In 1991, this Value of Statistical Life (VOSL) was estimated to be $2 million.

The 1991 VOSL has been updated, and is $3.5 million at June 2009 prices. However, there is evidence that points to flaws in the method used to update the VOSL over a long period of time.

The VOSL has been indexed to the ordinary time wage rate. But a study carried out in New Zealand in 1997/98 indicated this is not the most suitable approach over such a long period. The main reason for this could be that with better awareness, people's willingness to pay for further improvement increases over and above some measure of inflation. This was evidenced in the 1997/98 study which suggested the VOSL should now be over $5 million, rather than the $3.5 million used."

Please pay attention when driving around New Zealand roads and especially in the holiday times with many more motorists sharing the road.

For the full report please go to the Kiwirap road assessment programme