In 2021, 319 people were killed in crashes on our roads - and on the first day of the year, there have already been two more deaths.
The AA says roads here aren't as safe as Australia and if they were, there would have been 100 fewer deaths last year.
The New Year has gotten off to a devastating start with crash after crash after crash. All too familiar scenes of twisted metal and flashing lights.
One in Goodwood Heights, Manukau, involved a vehicle with three occupants that crashed into several parked cars and a lamp post. The driver was okay, but the two passengers were both injured and taken to hospital.
And then, just four hours into 2022, a pedestrian was hit in Omaha in north Auckland - the first life of the New Year to be lost on our roads. They were a teenager, and it's understood the driver was known to the teen and is assisting police with their investigations.
Then just an hour later came the second fatality of the New Year - a person killed in a crash at an intersection in New Plymouth.
Last year 319 people died in fatal crashes, and despite lockdowns over the last two years, the toll hasn't dropped below the 300 mark.
The Government has set a target to reduce road deaths by 40 percent by 2030 but the Automobile Association says more work needs to be done.
"We need to work harder and attack those key strategies. Safer roads, safer drivers, safer speeds, more enforcement and that will get us to our target," AA policy manager Simon Douglas says.
Douglas says too many lives are lost on our roads especially when compared with Australia.
"They’re down to around four deaths per 100,000km driven. Some of the European countries we look to are down two or three. Ours at just over six, it’s too high."
Half of fatal crashes involve extreme and reckless behaviour. The other half involve people having a momentary lapse or mistake. He's calling for more vigilance on the roads and more from those who enforce the rules.
"We’ve seen a steady drop in the number of breath tests being undertaken by police from 3 million down to about 1.5 million and we really need to get that back up again because we know that alcohol was a factor in about 25 percent of the deaths on the road," Douglas says.
A percentage too high with a cost that's irreversible.
