Katie Holland: Tragedy behind road toll

Katie Holland.

The official number is now six. That's how many people (as of yesterday) that have already died on New Zealand roads this year.

Almost one per day.

Another number is 320 - that's how many have died in the 12 months to yesterday.

From Christmas Eve onwards there has seemed to be a never-ending number of crashes being reported. Not another one, we said. What's going on, we wondered.

The number injured, the number killed, the number of cars involved.

The media duly reported each, adding up the numbers as they went.

But the numbers are not the real story. The real story is the people behind the numbers.

People like Teresa Morgan. She had 54 years of life and laughter and touching the lives of others. She had 33 years of marriage to her best friend Cam. She had four children who adored their mother.

She had five siblings. An untold number of friends and an untold number of moments shared with them they will never forget. And tragically the number two. Two members of one family lost in two Rotorua crashes in just over two years.

It's tough to read stories like the one on page 3 today.

They make us sad, make us think 'what if that was my mum?', make us reflect on the waste of life.

But putting human faces to the cold hard statistics is vital to keeping road safety in the public consciousness.

Just days after losing Mrs Morgan, her family has graciously shared with our readers a glimpse into who she was and why she will be so desperately missed.

If that doesn't make you think twice before impatiently pulling out to pass, before inching up to 110km/h, before driving tired, then I really don't know what will.