Hawke's Bay's single road fatality over the holiday period is "one too many", police say.
The official holiday period began at 4pm on Friday, December 22, 2017 and ended at 6am on Wednesday. There were 12 road deaths during this period - one for each day of the official Christmas-New Year holiday period.
The only Hawke's Bay fatal crash was early on Christmas Eve, when Waipukurau man Harry Nepe-Apatu, 65, died in Central Hawke's Bay.
He was a passenger in a vehicle that went down a bank on Pourerere Rd around 5.30am. The driver received minor injuries.
In total the 12 holiday deaths included eight drivers, three passengers, and one motorcyclist. Despite the grim toll it's an improvement on last year when 19 people died.
All but two of the 12 deaths occurred on the open road. Eight died on North Island roads.
"Although Hawke's Bay only had one fatality over the holiday period, in our view that is one too many," a police spokesperson said yesterday.
"Deaths and injuries on our roads have devastating impacts on families and communities."
Police were committed to reducing death and injury on roads, but needed the public's help.
"Please be patient and courteous with each other on the roads. We're all just trying to get where we're going. So let's work together and do our best to make sure we all get there safely."
Last summer, there were no deaths in the holiday road toll period on Hawke's Bay roads.
The holiday period before that - in the summer of 2015/2016 - saw the region's first Christmas holiday period road death in five years.
The latest holiday road toll comes as New Zealand records its worst annual toll in seven years.
Hawke's Bay's Christmas Eve fatal crash was the 24th in 2017 - inclusive of the area between Wairoa and Tararua - bringing the region's road toll to the highest it's been since 2012, when there were 23 deaths.