The road toll has soared to its highest level in eight years and police say we need to do better. At midnight on New Year's Eve the annual road toll provisionally stood at 380 deaths after two people died in crashes on Sunday. The death toll continued to climb for the fourth year running, 2017's toll a whopping 53 more than the previous year - or more than one person a week. ''Particularly here being in the middle of Central Otago, a road death really goes to the core of a community.'' In 2017 there were 31 road deaths in the Southern region, 18 of which were in Otago.

Source: Otago Daily Times January 01, 2018 13:41 UTC