It's been more heartbreak on our roads during the holiday period with 12 lives lost in 12 days.

The Christmas road toll period started at 4pm on the 22 December and ended at 6am this morning.

12 people were killed during that period - averaging one death a day.

AA Motoring Affairs general manager Mike Noon said the number of people killed is reflective of last year's disastrous toll, with 380 lives tragically cut short.

He said it's particularly devastating to lose loved ones at this time of year.

"It's very sad that at this special time of the year when friends and family and whanau get together to celebrate we've lost New Zealanders and most probably many more will have been injured over that period."

Noon said the toll itself only tells half the story as it doesn't include the amount of people seriously injured in crashes.

"If we just take the year gone, 380 New Zealanders lost their lives on the roads but likely 14,000 were injured.

"14,000 - that's the size of a pretty reasonably sized town in New Zealand."

And Noon wants people to make wearing a seatbelt their New Year's resolution.

"In 2016 and it will be a very similar number in 2017, a hundred New Zealanders lost their lives in crashes who were not properly restrained. About 50 of them would be alive if they had been belted up."