A person has died after their car hit a tree in Auckland's Papatoetoe last night.
The single vehicle crash on Puhinui Rd was reported to police shortly after 10pm.
"The sole occupant of the vehicle was transported to hospital with critical injuries, where they died a short time later," a police spokesperson said.
The serious crash unit conducted a scene examination and inquiries into the circumstances of the crash were ongoing.
The death brought the provisional number of road deaths for the 2025/2026 Christmas holiday period to seven.
The toll included deaths from between 4pm on December 24 to 6am today - one of the busiest travel periods of the year.
Fifteen people died on the roads over the Christmas holiday period last year, and 22 the year before.
Director of Road Policing Superintendent Steve Greally said the decrease was "encouraging'', but it was still "seven deaths too many".
Those families affected had "lost loved ones, for no good reason, and instead of being able to celebrate during this holiday season, their lives have been changed forever".
"Under Operation Open Roads, there has been an immense lift in Police enforcement over the last three years, to address those areas of the network that have higher speeds and those others that have high risk."
He said this was likely to have played a part in the lowering of the road toll.
“We're not going to celebrate until we have zero deaths on our roads, but this is trending in the right direction."
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