Five people have died on New Zealand roads over four days after a “vehicle incident” in Napier overnight.

The incident, on Nuffield Ave in Marewa, was reported to police at 9pm on Friday.

Emergency services rushed to the scene, where one person was found in critical condition.

“Efforts to resuscitate the man were unsuccessful and he died at the scene,” said a police spokesperson.

The Serious Crash Unit conducted a scene examination. Inquiries are ongoing.

It is not yet clear if this fatality will be involved in the official holiday road toll, which yesterday stood at four.

The Ministry of Transport has been approached for confirmation.

The holiday road toll period began on December 24.

On Christmas Eve, a motorcyclist died in a crash involving a car in Parkvale, Tauranga. Later that evening, shortly after 10pm, another person died at the scene of a single-vehicle crash in Pah Hill Rd in the Auckland suburb of Wharehine. On Boxing Day, a third fatality occurred, on SH35 near Te Araroa north of Gisborne.

And yesterday, one person died and four others suffered minor injuries after a two-vehicle crash on State Highway 25 between Thames and Coromandel, shortly before 9am.

The road stayed closed for several hours.

Police said that over the Christmas period last year 21 people died in road crashes.

“Road safety partners aim not to have a repeat of that figure this year.”

The Christmas road toll since 2018

2018–19 - nine

2019–20 - four

2020–21 - 11

2021–22 - 16

2022–23 - 19

2023–24 - 22

2024–25* - 3

This year's Christmas holiday period begins at 4pm on Tuesday, December 24 and ends at 6am on Friday, January 3. The provisional numbers here were last updated from the Ministry of Transport on 28 Dec 2024, 07:01 AM.

How many people have been killed on our roads each day of the Christmas holiday period since 2018?

DECEMBER

22 † (1)

23 ††† (3)

24 †††† (4)

25 ††††††† (7)

26 †††††† (6)

27 †††††††† (8)

28 ††††† (5)

29 ††††††††††††† (13)

30 †††††††† (8)

31 †††††††† (8)

JANUARY

1 †††††† (6)

2 †††††††††† (10)

3 †† (2)

4 ††† (3)

Fatalities from this Christmas holiday period are shown in darker red †. December 22, 23, and January 4 may be included in the Christmas holiday period when Christmas Eve falls on certain days of the week.