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Despite millions being poured into road safety campaigns, including nationwide speed and alcohol blitzes, police and Land Transport Safety are struggling to bring down the annual road toll to 300 by 2010.
Yesterday morning the country's worst black spot claimed another life when a 24-year-old driver ploughed head-on into a truck near Maramarua, on State Highway 2, about 6.30.
The Auckland man had not been named last night because police were still trying to notify his family.
Police said it appeared the man's car had failed to take a moderate left-hand bend and veered across into the path of the truck.
The stretch of road has now claimed the lives of more than 40 people over the past six years. Part of it has recently undergone safety improvements, including double laning in each direction and the installation of a wire-rope median.
More improvements are on Transit's 10-year agenda, with a bypass of Maramarua township planned.
Yesterday afternoon another person died in a collision between two trucks on Otaika Valley Rd, south of Whangarei. Emergency services closed the road while an investigation was carried out.
The death was the eighth in seven crashes from Northland to Canterbury since Saturday morning.
The deaths of the past three days have shot the year's road toll to 223, compared with the 207 lives that were lost over the same period last year.
According to Land Transport statistics by far the worst region in which to drive is Waikato, with 51 people killed in crashes so far this year.
Auckland (25), Canterbury (22), Bay of Plenty (20), and Northland (21) also have high death rates, while Wellington appears to be relatively safe with fatalities limited to 10 so far this year.
The national toll last year was 387.
Waikato road policing manager Inspector Leo Tooman said the high rate of crashes in the region could be put down increased traffic flows between Hamilton, Tauranga and Auckland.
"There are many more trucks out there, and that's only going to keep growing because the region is in between the two biggest ports.
"You make an error and you hit a car, you might get away with it. You make an error and you hit a truck, the chances are not good at all."
Winter has been blamed for several of the deaths. Alicia Maree Biggs, 12, of Brisbane, died on Saturday when the car she was in slid off a Canterbury road, soon after the vehicle appeared to have hit black ice.
On Sunday police found the body of a 57-year-old female delivery driver who also appeared to have slid off an icy road, while sun-strike is being investigated as the possible cause of the weekend's double level-crossing tragedy which has left 5-year-old Reef Coombes an orphan.
Last month an international student at Otago University died when the car she was in plunged 70m down a bank into Lake Wanaka when freezing weather iced up roads in the area.
Land Transport Safety Authority spokesman Andy Knackstedt suggested more people needed to adjust their driving to the conditions and be more vigilant.
A high number of deadly weekends this year have combined with a surge in pedestrian fatalities and a spate of cycle deaths earlier in the year.
Deaths at level rail crossings now total five so far this year, including the weekend's two at Ohingaiti and two more at Maketu on June 12.
"It's obviously very disappointing, and on a personal level for each one of these incidents it's very tragic," Mr Knackstedt said.
"We look at the weekend and it makes for some pretty depressing reading."
Mr Tooman said road fatalities traditionally fell away in winter. Emergency services could expect a busier time as summer approached.
He said people needed to heed the warnings about alcohol, fatigue, and speed.
"It's the same old, same old. You've got to keep your speed down and stay on the left-hand side of the roadway.
"Even at 110km/h you might be that little bit fast where you're starting to defy gravity, and once you do that you're buggered. It's only gravity which keeps us on this earth."
Mr Knackstedt said the target of significantly reducing the country's annual road toll in the next three years was proving to be a big challenge.
The Government had set a target of no more than 300 fatalities and fewer than 4500 hospitalisations by 2010, he said. "It's not that far away, so there's a lot of work to be done in order to get there."
Police spent about $200 million a year enforcing road rules, and a further $9 million was budgeted for advertising campaigns.
"There's no magic bullet or one-solution. It's going to take a concerted effort over time by a lot of people in a lot of agencies.
"But there's also a role for individuals to play as well. There's only so much you can do with engineering, education and enforcement."
Weekend road tolls
January 22 : Seven dead.
February 5 : Four dead.
March 5: Six dead.
May 21: Four dead.
May 28: Six dead.
June 4: Five dead.
July 2: Six dead.
July 16: Six dead.
