New Zealand has failed to meet its road safety targets compared with Sweden and the UK, according to a Traffic Institute of New Zealand (Trafinz) official.

Traffic Institute of New Zealand president Andy Foster says one of the reasons for the failure is largely misplaced investment priorities and a lack of “political guts”.

Over the last 12 months, 370 people have died and many more have suffered injuries, according to stuff.co.nz.

The government had fixed a target to decrease the road death toll to below 300 per annum by 2010, and hospitalisation rates below 4,500 a year, ten decades ago, which it has failed to meet.

The institute has, however, blamed the government failure to reach targets on a continuously high toll road, which took eight years to complete.