2026 crashes in Christchurch
1,068 crashes police-reported, 465 hurt somebody, 4 people were killed and 78 people were seriously hurt. Down 33% on 2025 for injury crashes.
2026 is still being filed, the Crash Analysis System (CAS) receives a crash weeks after it happens, once the police report lands. This page’s numbers climb until the year closes.
By severity
Severity is the worst injury in the crash; the bars count crashes, the tiles count people. The 603 damage-only reports sit under the trend, they rise and fall with how willing people are to fill in a form.
Where they happened
Read from each crash’s coordinates, the outline its point falls inside.
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: Curletts Road & Curletts Road Off Ramp, 8 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
Crashes in which that kind of road user appears, one crash can carry several.
The conditions
93% urban. 13% on a state highway. 1,062 named a corner or a second road. 47 fell on a holiday, Christmas / New Year 19, Easter 16, Queen's Birthday 12. The street lights were on for 351, off for 540 and absent for 89.
Speed zones
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
What the reports say was struck, a crash can hit several things and most hit nothing at all.
The weather it happened in
A second condition rode some of them, strong wind on 20, frost on 17.
How the crossing was controlled
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
The way the road ran: 833 on a two-way road, 220 on a one-way street, 6 on off the road. 49 were on a hill road. 8 left the sealed road. The uncommon spots: 16 a speed hump, 16 on a bridge, 9 a motorway ramp, 6 an underpass, 3 a rail crossing. Roadworks marked 3, a temporary speed limit 14, an advisory speed 12.
The vehicles on the day
A crash can carry several, the bikes, motorbikes and trucks are counted with the road users above.
The way they were travelling
The direction CAS recorded for the unit that started the crash: where the report gives one.
The people who died, 4
Every fatal crash in the record in 2026, the roads it named:
- Main North Road at Christchurch Northern Motorway
- West Coast Road at Miners Road
- Evans Pass Road at Sumnervale Drive
- Grahams Road at Cranbrook Avenue
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/2026.md.
Questions, answered briefly
1,068 police-reported crashes, 465 hurt somebody, 4 people killed and 78 people were seriously hurt, 455 minor injuries. The police crash record counts crashes where someone was hurt or a report was filed, most minor bumps never reach it.
Curletts Road and Curletts Road Off Ramp, 8 crashes that year.
Christchurch Central, 101 crashes, read from each crash’s coordinates against the suburb outlines.
13% were on a state highway. 47 fell on a holiday (Christmas / New Year 19, Easter 16, Queen's Birthday 12).