King’s Birthday Weekend saw only one person die on New Zealand’s roads, though that number could still change depending on the outcome of other crashes.

It’s the lowest number over the same weekend in at least five years. Even during the height of the Covid-19 outbreak – when there were fewer people on the roads – four people died over Queen’s Birthday holiday period in 2020 and three in 2021.

On Tuesday, the provisional road toll sits at one fatality, after a person died following a single vehicle crash near Pukenui in Northland at about midday on Saturday.

The crash happened on No 2 Arterial Rd and the person died at the scene.

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There were two other fatal crashes, one which might fall within the holiday period – officially running from 6pm on Friday until 6am on Tuesday.

A third crash, at about 9.30pm in Paekākāriki on Monday, involved a pedestrian who was hit and left with life-threatening injuries.

Patrick Honey, 20, died on Friday as he travelled back to his family in Collingwood, Tasman.

Police were alerted to the crash at 4.45pm on Friday afternoon, just after the official reporting period began, however the Ministry of Transport’s statistics are so far only reporting one death.

Honey was driving on State Highway 7, near Island Hills between the Hanmer Springs turnoff and Engineers Camp, at about 4.45pm when his car and another collided.

“He was a real bright mature kid, helping people by being encouraging, he’s just an all-round nice, well-balanced young man, very mature for his age, cheeky smile,” said his former teacher Erihapeti McPherson.

Speaking on behalf of Honey’s family, McPherson said the young man was “going to be really sorely missing in this community because he was such a stand-out kid”.

Meanwhile, another person died on Saturday in a single-vehicle crash at a property on Stanleys Rd, Otaio, Waimate.

But because that crash happened on private property and not on public roads, the death isn’t included in the road toll.