Transport Minister Steven Joyce is urging motorists to take care on the roads over the Easter break.

"A lot of people will be going away this weekend, and that means a lot of traffic on our roads. Drivers will need to be extra vigilant," he says.

"Most of the deaths on our roads come from excessive speed, drink driving and risky overtaking.

"We all have a responsibility for road safety. Please stay alert, drive to the conditions and don't take risks."

The official Easter holiday period runs from 4.00pm today (Thursday 9 April) until 6am on Tuesday 14 April.

Last Easter, 9 people died on New Zealand roads and 195 were injured.

"Please use commonsense on the road to make sure that this is a safe and happy Easter weekend," says Mr Joyce.

"We all need to remember that taking a little extra time to get where we are going is well worth it."

Over Easter weekend 2008 there were 6 fatal crashes and 135 reported injury crashes. These crashes resulted in 9 deaths, 35 serious injuries and 160 minor injuries. The 9 deaths included:

• Eight of the nine deaths and half the injury crashes reported during the Easter weekend occurred on the open road.
  
• Forty-one percent of crashes were single vehicle crashes in which a driver lost control or ran off the road, 24% were intersection collisions, 16% were rear end crashes or collisions with obstructions (such as parked vehicles), 8% were head-on collisions, 4% involved collisions with pedestrians, 3% were overtaking crashes and another 4% were manoeuvring.
  
• Drivers losing control (28% of crashes), inattention (24%), alcohol (21%), failing to give way (21%) and travelling too fast for conditions (20%) were the most common driver factors contributing to crashes.

Historical since 1980

 The tolls for 2003, 2002 and 1998 were the lowest since the first available records for holiday periods in 1956. The previous lowest total was 4 deaths recorded in 1959. The highest toll on record is 21 and was recorded in 1971.