chch.live a year of crashes, counted

2024 crashes in Christchurch

1,837 crashes police-reported, 647 hurt somebody, 8 people were killed and 121 people were seriously hurt. Down 6% on 2023 for injury crashes.

Crashes on record
1,837
Hurt somebody
647
People killed
8
Seriously hurt
121
Minor injuries
692

By severity

fatal 8
serious 110
minor 529
damage only 1,190

Severity is the worst injury in the crash; the bars count crashes, the tiles count people. The 1,190 damage-only reports sit under the trend, they rise and fall with how willing people are to fill in a form.

The roads it named most

Counting every crash that named the road, a link is the map filtered to it. The corner the year kept returning to: Blenheim Road & Main South Road, 10 crashes that year.

The corners it kept returning to

The two roads a crash named together, ranked, each opens its own pairing page.

Who was involved

people on bicycles 128
motorcycles & mopeds 111
people walking 107
trucks 72
buses 36

Crashes in which that kind of road user appears, one crash can carry several.

The conditions

Bright sun 668
Dark 534
Overcast 513
Twilight 86

92% urban. 16% on a state highway. 1,829 named a corner or a second road. 86 fell on a holiday, Christmas / New Year 34, Queen's Birthday 21, Labour Weekend 17, Easter 14. The street lights were on for 542, off for 1,024 and absent for 170.

Speed zones

0 km/h 8 1 killed
10 km/h 2
20 km/h 1
30 km/h 72
40 km/h 24
50 km/h 1,284 4 killed
60 km/h 275 3 killed
70 km/h 27
80 km/h 88
100 km/h 56

Posted speed limit where the crash was recorded, the same bars the whole-record page draws. Faster zones kill more often per crash.

What they hit

a parked vehicle 247
a fence 132
a post or pole 121
a tree 74
a guard rail 62
a traffic sign 59
a traffic island 53
a bank or cliff face 38

What the reports say was struck, a crash can hit several things and most hit nothing at all.

The weather it happened in

fine 1,563
light rain 195
heavy rain 26
mist or fog 20

A second condition rode some of them, strong wind on 28, frost on 24.

How the crossing was controlled

no marked control 999
traffic signals 404
a give way 321
a stop sign 106
pedestrian signals 6
a pointsman 1

The control CAS recorded at the spot, a crash pinned to a corner still counts the crossing’s control, not which rule was broken.

The road itself

2 lanes 1,435
3 lanes 172
4 lanes 119
1 lane 58
6 lanes 20
5 lanes 16
8 lanes 2

The way the road ran: 1,424 on a two-way road, 403 on a one-way street, 8 on off the road. 108 were on a hill road. 17 left the sealed road. The uncommon spots: 17 a motorway ramp, 15 on a bridge, 9 a rail crossing, 9 an overpass, 6 an underpass. Roadworks marked 1, a temporary speed limit 30, an advisory speed 57.

The vehicles on the day

cars & station wagons 1,581
vans & utes 280
SUVs 274
unrecorded vehicles 50
taxis 24
other vehicles 10
trains 1

A crash can carry several, the bikes, motorbikes and trucks are counted with the road users above.

The way they were travelling

heading south 264
heading north 259
heading west 196
heading east 174

The direction CAS recorded for the unit that started the crash: where the report gives one.

The people who died, 8

Every fatal crash in the record in 2024, the roads it named:

Other years

The record behind this

Every figure comes from NZTA’s Crash Analysis System, the national record of crashes a police officer wrote up, filtered to Christchurch City. Damage-only and minor crashes are underreported everywhere; the killed and seriously-hurt numbers are the ones that hold.

The map, the repeat corners and the whole-record charts are at /crashes. This page as markdown: /crashes/2024.md.

Questions, answered briefly

How many crashes were there in Christchurch in 2024?

1,837 police-reported crashes, 647 hurt somebody, 8 people killed and 121 people were seriously hurt, 692 minor injuries. The police crash record counts crashes where someone was hurt or a report was filed, most minor bumps never reach it.

What was the worst corner in Christchurch in 2024?

Blenheim Road and Main South Road, 10 crashes that year.

Which suburb had the most crashes in 2024?

Christchurch Central, 210 crashes, read from each crash’s coordinates against the suburb outlines.

Where and when did 2024’s crashes cluster?

16% were on a state highway. 86 fell on a holiday (Christmas / New Year 34, Queen's Birthday 21, Labour Weekend 17, Easter 14).