Northland police are urging motorists to drive to the conditions and keep their speed down after a spate of incidents in the past week, including one in which an elderly man died after a crash at Dargaville.
Fredrick Charles Poyner, 85, died on Friday after the car he was in was hit two days earlier by another vehicle that police say failed to give way at an intersection in the town.
The death took Northland's road toll for the year to 10, the same as the corresponding stage in 2013.
The crash was one of several serious collisions in Northland in the past week that led Northland road policing manager Inspector Murray Hodson to warn motorists to drive to the conditions and slow down, particularly with rain around and the worst time of the year for road deaths in Northland upon us.
One of the crashes, which occurred on State Highway 10 near Kerikeri on Friday, resulted in a woman and two children receiving serious injuries.
Factors in some of the recent crashes have included speed and fatigue, Mr Hodson said.
He said drivers needed to be constantly aware of the conditions they were driving in and adapted their speed accordingly.
"For instance, last Friday we had a mixture of four seasons in one day with cold temperatures, warm sunny conditions, overcast conditions and then rain.
"All this leads to a change in the condition of the road and can affect your vision as you are driving.
"The speed limit is not the target." Motorists needed to plan their journeys, make sure they took plenty of rest stops on long trips and shared the driving if possible. "Between August and December last year 12 people died on our roads. We don't want to see a repeat of that this year. We want people to be safe as they drive around Northland," he said.
Police would be actively targeting speeding drivers, particularly those who travelled between 11 and 15km/h over the posted speed limit to help reduce the number of serious-injury and fatal crashes.
"We make no apology for stopping those who are speeding and giving them a ticket. It may just save their life as well as the lives of other motorists."
Other crashes since last week have included on Friday a car veering off State Highway 1 just south of Kawakawa. The car ended up in a paddock and the driver received minor injuries.
Also on Friday a car containing five people hit a bank on SH12 near Aranga, north of Dargaville. One person received moderate injuries.
Then on Saturday a car rolled on SH1 near Oakleigh, south of Whangarei. The driver received moderate injuries.