"We have been looking into our own internal stats and comparing our own accident statistics year on year. We were actually seeing an overall reduction. Now these comparisons do show that there are other issues on the roads, not just tourist drivers."
Mr Dalglish said there were 2.8 million foreign visitors to New Zealand each year.
An estimate based on industry figures suggested that about 465,000 tourists had hired cars to drive on the country's roads this summer alone, he said.
"We just wanted to provide a balanced view. We acknowledge there is an issue [with tourist drivers] but there are also other issues."
The data set also reiterated trends in previously published data, showing that tourists accounted for 1 per cent - or 358 - of the 27,494 road accidents in the same period. Of the 232 fatal accidents, eight involved tourists - two of the 165 in the North Island and six of the 67 in the South Island.
Tourist drivers have come under intense public scrutiny after high-profile fatal crashes and an industry code of practice to better screen and educate tourist drivers is being worked on between 25 rental vehicle companies, the Tourism Association of New Zealand and the RVA.
Associate Transport Minister Craig Foss said the Transport Ministry would work with the group and offer assistance if necessary.
Speeding fines issued in January net $9.12m
Police officers and speed cameras combined issued more than 171,900 tickets to drivers in January - netting $9.12 million in fines for the month.
Data released by police last week, along with a 47-page report into the controversial Safer Speeds Enforcement summer road safety campaign, showed that while the bulk of tickets in January - 146,462 - came from cameras, officers handed out 25,451 speeding tickets.
That resulted in $9.12 million of fines for the month, up from $6 million in January 2014, the data showed.
New Zealand's road toll topped 17 for the period from 4pm on December 24 until 6am on January 5 and resulted in heavy criticism of supposedly confusing messages around police's summer safety campaign.
It was also revealed that only 33 tickets - netting $420 in fines - were issued by officers to drivers breaching a speed limit by between 1km/h and 4km/h.
An independent report, ordered by Police Minister Michael Woodhouse, featured an online survey of 501 New Zealand road users aged 18-plus and found only 10 per cent were confused.
NZ Automobile Association (AA) said the report was not an accurate reflection of what happened on the country's roads during the holiday period.
Deputy Police Commissioner of National Operations, Mike Clement, said police did not change their operational approach to road policing - cameras were still set to a 4km/h speed threshold, as opposed to the non-holiday threshold of 10km/h above a speed limit, in non-school areas.
"In an effort to steer the public conversation away from a customary focus on 'speed tolerance', the 2014/15 campaign messaging was changed to remind drivers of the safety benefits of driving at, or below posted speed limits.
"But we acknowledge that in doing so, this generated some criticism that Police was changing its planned enforcement approach with some reported confusion around what speed thresholds were being enforced."
He said the research found a "high level of support for the police focus on speed enforcement and a low level of confusion about the campaign's enforcement message".
The report stated that 62 per cent of respondents said they changed their behaviour during the holiday period because of the campaign and that two-thirds were able to recall without prompting that speed was a key message of summer road policing.
"The research also shows the majority of New Zealand road users adjusted their driving behaviour accordingly, with widespread public support for continued enforcement of speed limits. While the research results are encouraging, Police is very conscious of the need to bring the public along with us during our future campaigns."
AA spokesman Dylan Thomsen said: "[The report] doesn't seem to match up with what we did, a survey of our own AA members at the time, which showed that people were confused. The feedback that we got at the time was that people found it confusing."
National Road Policing Manager, Superintendent Steve Greally, said the research released yesterday "has been very valuable in helping inform how we approach our public messaging for future campaigns".
"For Easter, our focus will again be on the most common high-risk driver behaviours.
"This includes targeting those driving drunk, under the influence of drugs, or who are speeding and travelling too fast for the conditions and not wearing their safety belts."
Speeding tickets (Jan)
Camera-issued
146,462 tickets / $6.43 million fines
Officer-issued
25,451 tickets / $2.69 million fines
Total
171,913 tickets/$9.12 million fines
Source: NZ Police
Slow drivers inconsiderate and face tickets, say police
Thousands of holiday travellers clogged up the country's highways but there had been no fatal crashes over the Easter weekend when the Weekend Herald went to press last night.
Complaints of slow and inconsiderate driving were common yesterday, with sluggish campervans incurring the wrath of motorists.
Campervans travelling at 40 to 60km/h on highways were "holding up large amounts of traffic", police southern communications Inspector Murray Hurst said. People driving very slowly could face legal penalties, he said.
"It is actually an offence to drive slow. It's inconsiderate driving, so you can be ticketed. Our advice is pull over when you can."
One impatient motorist had her licence immediately suspended when police clocked her passing a line of slow-moving traffic at 150km/h yesterday.
The Queenstown woman, whose two children were in her car, was stopped on State Highway 1 between Dunedin and Milton about 7pm. Police said when stopped, the 28-year-old woman admitted speeding, saying she was sick of waiting in line as the other cars were driving too slow.
She received a 28-day licence suspension, 50 demerit points and infringement notices for the excessive speed, driving on an expired licence and in an unlicensed car.
There was heavy traffic congestion on highways across the country. Motorists on Auckland's Northern and Southern Motorways were warned of major delays because of the heavy traffic, the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) said.
Southbound traffic on the Southern Motorway was backed up between the Manukau interchange and the Bombays, Hampton Downs to Rangiriri, and Ohinewai through to Huntly yesterday.
On the Northern Motorway, there was heavy congestion between Orewa to Johnstones's Hill Tunnel and Wellsford, NZTA said.
