By SCOTT MacLEOD
Last month's road toll of 31 deaths was the lowest for any August since records began in 1965 - and may help to pull this year's tally under 500 for the first time.
The August total was exactly half that for the same month last year and just three more than the best-ever month - last January.
But September was just a few hours old when Tehira Harlem Monteque, aged 22, was killed in a crash near Cambridge.
Land Transport Safety Authority director Reg Barrett welcomed the lower toll, but said there was "no such thing as an acceptable level of carnage on our roads."
In the first two-thirds of this year, 303 people died on the roads compared with 351 at the same time last year. The toll in the year to August 31 was 461.
Authority spokesman Craig Dowling said the toll could be under 500 for the first time in a calendar year. The previous best was 501, in 1998.
The road toll has been dropping since the mid-1980s, after peaking at 843 in 1973. The improvement has been credited to stronger enforcement, better roads and changing attitudes to alcohol.
Meanwhile, a 44-year-old man was killed late yesterday morning near Matamata when his car failed to take an easy bend on State Highway 29 and hit a tree.
The name of the man, who was the car's only occupant, was not available last night.
Police have also yet to publicly identify a person killed when a car hit a power pole near Christchurch Airport and burst into flames late on Friday.
A Northland woman and her teenage daughter who died when their car and a four-wheel-drive vehicle collided on State Highway 12 near Maungaturoto on Friday were Erica Doris Hodges, aged 43, who was driving, and Jannene Carla Hodges, 16, both from Pahi near Paparoa.
The driver of the other vehicle, a 59-year-old Dargaville man, suffered minor injuries.
A Morrinsville woman who died near the Karangahake Gorge last Thursday had been married for just a few days.
Diana Margaret Tanner, 52, was travelling with husband Len when their car and another vehicle collided on State Highway 2 outside Paeroa.
Two people in the other car were also killed. Ming Yeung To, a 20-year-old Auckland man, and Lai Shan Chan, a 27-year-old woman originally from Hong Kong, were Auckland University students.
Mr Tanner lost his first wife to illness just over a year ago, said friend Dan Paxton.
Mrs Tanner's first husband also died last year and she lost her son to cancer, after nursing them both.
Road toll heading for lowest count
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