Road safety experts are warning about the dangers of fatigued driving after a fatal crash on State Highway 1 in Wellington.
Police say fatigue was a factor of a Johnsonville crash which killed a 25-year-old motorcyclist on Saturday.
A 72-year-old woman has been charged with careless driving causing death for the incident, where it is alleged the car was travelling southbound in a northbound lane of SH1.
Brake NZ director Caroline Perry said fatigue doesn't just mean tired.
"We also get fatigue just through our normal daily lives and stresses at differently times of year, being up at different times to when we might normally."
Ms Perry told Newshub there's a higher risk around the end of the year when people's routines tend to get interrupted.
"You might be in a different routine to normal, there are different stresses that happen around Christmas and also people tend to be planning longer journeys as well."
She said people need to be aware that everyone is impacted by fatigue, even if they're well rested.
"We think that if we get a good night's sleep that we're fine, but... our bodies tend to have a fatigue period between two and four in the afternoon and then in an early hours of the morning."
Newshub.
