Police pleased by Easter drivers

Traffic heading home from holidaying in Northland for Easter. Photo / Tania Whyte

Police were happy with the overall manner of driving on Northland roads over the weekend.

Northland police road policing manager Inspector Murray Hodson said 118 calls were made about driver behaviour to the *555 service between 4pm on Friday and 10am on Monday and 60 per cent were attended to based on priority. Last year there were 100 calls made to *555.

"The overall manner of driving has been very good with traffic being heavy which shows that drivers have given due consideration to what's around them which has contributed thus far to a good weekend," he said.

"The increase in *555 calls shows people have confidence in calling the police in relation to high-risk driving incidents."

There were no fatal or serious injury crashes in Northland over the holiday period. However, seven minor crashes resulted in two minor injuries.

Mr Hodson said police were patrolling known Northland roading hotspots including the Brynderwyn Hills, SH10 between Kaitaia and Kerikeri, and SH12 around Kaikohe.

"We know what times are high risk as well so that's when we have more staff on the roads."

Nationally the Easter weekend had the second lowest road toll on record and was the first with the new lower alcohol limits for drivers in effect.

One person died on the nation's roads between 4pm on Thursday and 6am Tuesday - the official holiday period.

National road policing operations manager Inspector Peter McKennie said one death was a tragedy, but overall police were pleased.

The tally for injury crashes was not available to police yesterday, but the low road toll meant road safety messages were getting through to drivers, he said.

The policing strategy and messages were similar to previous years, but the lower drink-driving limits were a new factor that may have assisted in the low toll, Mr McKennie said.

From December 1 last year, the alcohol limit for drivers aged 20 and over was lowered from 400mcg of alcohol per litre of breath to 250mcg.

Last year's Easter road toll was five.