By Ken Lewis
Three more road fatalities brought the holiday toll to 19 last night and police said alcohol, speed and motorists not wearing seatbelts were to blame in most of the accidents.
All but one of the deaths were in the North Island and eight were in Northland.
The police national road
safety manager, Superintendent Neil Gyde of Wellington, said he had been feeling positive about the 1998 road toll which, at 504, was the lowest in 34 years.
However, he was disturbed at the spate of accidents since New Year's Eve and blamed driver attitudes for the tragic start to 1999.
He said drivers' failing to obey the most basic road safety rules had caused the crashes.
Rules that were being ignored with tragic results were:
* Keeping speed down.
* Not drinking alcohol.
* Wearing seatbelts.
* Keeping to the correct side of the road.
*Watching following distances.
Only three incidents did not involve any of these factors and two of those were pedestrian fatalities.
"We have all seen drivers slumped at the wheel with one hand outside the car, and talking with passengers," said Mr Gyde.
"They are not concentrating on the road.
"The 1998 road toll shows most drivers are behaving responsibly, but it's everyone's responsibility.
"If you are a passenger it's up to you to tell the driver they are not following the rules."
Mr Gyde said that in Northland and the rest of New Zealand it was locals who were dying on local roads.
"All but one crash in Northland involved Northlanders.
"This shows that it is not road conditions, but attitudes which are to blame."
The official holiday period began at 4 pm on Christmas Eve and ends at 8 am tomorrow.
The latest death occurred yesterday afternoon when two cars and a truck collided southeast of Blenheim, killing a 63-year-old woman.
On Saturday night, two men died after their car drove into the path of a south-bound petrol tanker on State Highway 1, near Ruakaka in Northland. They were Peter Jeremy Pene, the 23-year-old driver, and Kenneth Tane Walker, 21, both from Auckland.
The elderly man who died on New Year's Day when his car plunged 40m down a bank on the Desert Road, 20km south of Turangi, was Herman Theodore Steensma, 78, of Wellington.
His wife was flown by Tranz Rail rescue helicopter to Hastings Hospital with serious injuries.
By Ken Lewis
Three more road fatalities brought the holiday toll to 19 last night and police said alcohol, speed and motorists not wearing seatbelts were to blame in most of the accidents.
All but one of the deaths were in the North Island and eight were in Northland.
The police national road
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