Eight people died the roads in a 24-hour period this week, including five Tongan men whose car was hit by a truck on State Highway 2 in the Bay of Plenty.
Transport Minister Simon Bridges is attending a community meeting in Katikati on Thursday near the scene of the fatal crash to discuss road safety measures – a meeting he'd planned before the crash.
A Google Street View image of the intersection on SH2 where the five men were killed (Google Maps)
He told Paul Henry on Thursday morning there's no "quick fix" to making our roads safer, saying drivers also need to be educated about sharing their space.
"There's no one thing. It's vehicles - we've got an old fleet and we need to keep addressing that, it's behaviour and it's also investment we need to make.
"The topography, the landscape is very difficult and I think the other thing that is going on there is the range of vehicles - you've got big trucks, you've got mums with school kids, you've got light commercial as well. All of that is going on and that does make it a potentially lethal cocktail on that road."
The 2016 Budget pledged $85 million for safety improvements on the area of road where the five men were killed.
Mr Bridges says at Thursday's meeting he will address the planned safety measures, including installing median barriers and intersection improvements. Work is expected to begin in 2017.
He told Paul Henry there is the potential for widening parts of the road, but it has challenges.
"The message on that sadly is that takes time - you've got to purchase the property, you've got to go through consenting, you've got to go through design."
He says the expense of median barriers is worth it, citing the Kapiti Highway as an example, where there were many fatal crashes before barrier installation - and none since.
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