Serious crashes were defined as those that resulted in a hospital stay of greater than 24 hours for the injured, said report author and trauma nurse specialist Katrina O'Leary. "Although deaths from road crashes are trending down internationally, they remain a major health and community burden, with most occurring from preventable causes," she said.
The report also revealed that serious crashes occurred mostly on rural roads, with 77 of the 165 accidents taking place there. Tauranga was the next most common centre, with 33 crashes, and the most common accident time was between 12 midday and 6pm. There were 37 motorbike crashes within the Bay of Plenty last year and 18 people struck by vehicles.
Seven of these pedestrians were intoxicated at the time.
The information for the review was taken from St John Ambulance records, the Midland DHB's Regional Trauma System data sheets, ACC forms, hospital web based patient administration systems, and from patients themselves.