KEY POINTS:
The road toll last year was the lowest in 46 years despite the deaths of six people in the last 24 hours of the year.
It was the first year since 1963 in which fewer than 400 people died on the roads and the total of 387 was the lowest since 1960, when 374 lives were lost.
National road policing manager Superintendent Dave Cliff said despite a spate of accidents after Christmas things were "quite positive".
Nine people were killed over the Christmas-New Year compared with 14 at the same time last year.
No fatal crashes were reported yesterday, which Mr Cliff put down to drivers being "much calmer".
"Most people are staying below the speed limits," he said. "People are also not overtaking in stupid places or taking risks like they would 10 years ago."
The positive indicators were continuing a downward trend in road fatalities although there were still too many deaths on the roads.
"The more often people obey the rules on the roads the less often will we see fatal accidents," Mr Cliff said.
Driving too fast for road and weather conditions remained the biggest killer and police were still faced with "sociopaths" who ignored pleas not to drink and drive.
Drink-drive prosecutions have risen by about 1000 for each of the past two years. Last year the total climbed above 29,000.
Land Transport New Zealand said preliminary analysis of last year's fatal crashes showed that driving too fast for the conditions and drink-driving were the two biggest factors.
Spokesman Andy Knackstedt said excessive speed was a factor in 32 per cent and drink-driving contributed to 29 per cent.
He said 23 per cent of vehicle occupants killed last year were not wearing seatbelts.
More than 35,000 people had been killed on the road since the country's first known fatal crash in Christchurch in 1908.
The deadliest year on the roads was 1973, when 843 died. As recently as 1990, there were 729 road deaths. Since then, the toll has dropped by 47 per cent, despite a 42 per cent increase in number of vehicles on the road and a 21 per cent increase in population.
Mr Knackstedt said if the 1980s fatality rate compared with vehicle numbers had continued the road toll would now be about 1000.
In 1990, the death rate was 21.4 out of every 100,000 people compared with 9.3 last year.
Mr Knackstedt said the lower road toll last year was because of a combination of measures such as:
* Transit New Zealand and Land Transport NZ making significant improvements to crash black spots.
* The presence of police patrolling the roads.
* Better enforcement.
* More sensible driving.
* The encouragement of better driver behaviour.
Mr Knackstedt said the past decade was marked by a fundamental shift in thinking about road safety.
The downward trend since 795 deaths in 1987 was reinforced by the introduction in 1991 of the National Road Safety Plan, the Safety Administration Programme and the National Land Transport programme.
Compulsory breath testing and speed cameras came in 1993 followed in 1995 by years of hard-hitting national advertising campaigns.
"We can prove the advertising campaigns work," said Mr Knackstedt.
Annual surveys of public attitudes to road safety showed significant improvement in views towards drink-driving, excessive speed and traffic enforcement, with 90 per cent of people either wanting enforcement at the same level or more of it.
"We must keep the pressure on," said Mr Knackstedt. "We are well behind where we need to be in five years when the Government target is for the toll to be no more than 300 deaths and no more than 4500 hospitalisations."
AA spokesman Simon Lambourne said a factor in lowering the toll was safer vehicles (with the introduction of air bags, electronic stability control and three diagonal seatbelts in the backseat).
"We should keep up driver education, ban hand-held mobile phones while driving and introduce red light cameras in the Auckland CBD."
