As road toll plunges, here’s how we can push it even lower

Thursday, 22 January 2026

Despite the many hours Kiwis spent in their cars last year, fewer of us were killed in road crashes, Dylan Thomsen writes.

Dylan Thomsen is the road safety spokesperson for the AA.

OPINION: For the second year in a row, New Zealand has recorded the lowest road death rates seen in modern times. Just 272 people died in 2025, down from 292 in 2024.

Once you account for the size of our population, you have to look back to the 1920s to find a lower fatality rate from crashes. It’s an extraordinary milestone and effectively means about 70 less lives are being lost in crashes annually compared to just two years ago.

The AA hopes this is the start of a new era for road safety in New Zealand after decades of being among the worst in the developed world.

So what’s changed? Three things that we believe played a major part are upgrades to high-risk highways, a resurgence in drunk driving enforcement and an increasing amount of our vehicles having more modern safety standards.

But this shouldn’t be as good as it gets. There are a few changes the AA thinks could save even more lives on our roads.

The first is modifying our licensing system which simply does not require enough practice, training, or skill development before people are allowed to drive on their own. Far too many new drivers don’t have the experience they need to be safer and young drivers have the highest crash rates on our roads.

The AA believes police should be able to dish out heftier fines for high-risk traffic offences.

If New Zealand required a longer learner period, a minimum amount of supervised practice and encouraged more professional training it would likely make a big and long-term difference. Other countries have taken this step with great success. We should too.

We believe stronger penalties can help improve driving behaviour and ultimately reduce crash numbers - most of our penalties for drivers breaking the rules haven’t changed since 1999. Fewer crashes would not only mean less individual people hurt but also a smaller burden on New Zealand’s health system, emergency services, ACC, the courts and repair bills.

We would like to see the Government bring in a package of changes that better targeted higher-risk offences, used a wider range of penalties and increased fines.

A recent AA Research Foundation report showed about 20 less fatal crashes were happening a year on what had been our highest-risk highways in the early 2000s.

New, better designed roads have played their part in reducing crashes, writes Dylan Thomsen.

Many of these highways had had major safety upgrades or been replaced by modern, high-quality expressways and we need to keep going.

Investing in barriers, intersection upgrades and modern safety design will keep saving lives year after year into the future.

Finally, too many people are still dying because someone didn’t wear a seatbelt or was distracted by their phone. These behaviours are simple, preventable, and highly visible — yet enforcement is limited because police can’t be everywhere at once.

Cameras that automatically detect illegal phone use or people not buckled up are now common overseas and proven to reduce these behaviours dramatically. New Zealand should introduce them.

New Zealand’s road toll hasn’t been this low in 100 years. It’s a chance to lock in a new era — one where falling road deaths become normal instead of exceptional.

But that won’t happen by itself.

If we strengthen driver training, make penalties meaningful, keep upgrading dangerous roads, and use modern technology to catch high‑risk behaviour, we can push the toll even lower.

The last two years show what’s possible.

What we do next will decide whether it lasts.