Record-low road toll, but new AA report finds significant opportunities to make roads safer
02 November 2026
New Zealand made significant road safety progress in 2025, but the first AA Annual Road Safety Review shows there are still clear opportunities to reduce deaths and serious injuries further.
The newly launched review brings together a decade of crash statistics, new research and survey findings to provide a comprehensive picture of road safety in New Zealand.
While the data shows 2025 was an exceptional year for reducing road deaths, it also revealed that improving safety for young drivers, closing the large road safety gap between regions and tackling distraction should be priorities for the decade ahead.
“2025 proved to anyone who doubts we can improve road safety significantly in New Zealand that it is possible,” says AA road safety spokesperson Dylan Thomsen.
Deaths involving major crash factors like speed, alcohol, fatigue and distraction were at their lowest levels of the decade.
Comparing New Zealand’s road deaths with Australia’s when adjusted for population size illustrates how much things improved in 2025. New Zealand almost drew level with Australia, which has had a significantly lower rate of road deaths since the 1980s.
“If we can continue matching Australia’s road safety levels rather than what New Zealand has traditionally had, it will mean about 50 less deaths every year,” says Dylan.
The review also identifies major challenges that remain. Young people aged 15-24 continue to experience by far the highest rate of death and serious injury and large regional differences also persist, with many provincial areas experiencing twice the population-adjusted rate of road trauma seen in Auckland and Wellington.
Dylan says the AA has created this annual review to do more than look backwards.
“We’ve made real progress over the past decade. The important question now is where the next gains will come from.
“Our analysis points to three areas deserving particular attention over the next decade: improving the safety of young drivers, narrowing the enormous road safety gap between regions, and tackling distractions like cellphone use behind the wheel.”
AA surveys completed for this review showed that 7 out of 8 people thought there were aspects of their own driving they could improve, with paying attention and avoiding distraction the most identified problem area.
When people were asked about near misses or crashes they may have recently had, someone not seeing another road user was the most common reason selected as causing the incident.
The AA intends to publish the Road Safety Review annually.
“There’s an enormous amount of road safety data available in New Zealand for those that know where to find it, but it can be difficult to interpret for many people,” says Dylan.
“The AA hopes this review can become an annual benchmark that helps New Zealanders understand whether we are making real progress on safer roads.”
For more information contact:
Dylan Thomsen
AA Road Safety spokesperson
027 703 9935
dthomsen@aa.co.nz