The man who died after crashing into a New Plymouth house on Christmas Eve has been named by police as 60-year-old Darcy Wilfred Brewer.

The crash occurred in Riversdale Drive in Merrilands, the New Plymouth suburb where Brewer lived.

Brewer died at the scene in the 9.15am crash, which left his car “buried in the house”, a Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesperson said at the time.

A person inside the house was taken to hospital with moderate injuries.

A woman told Stuff they saw a speeding car overtake a bus just before the crash.

“I was walking the dogs with my husband, and there was a car speeding, going past us, and then ... saw it overtake a bus then heard a loud bang.

“We knew there’d been a crash so we made our way quickly up here to see what was going on, and saw that the car had gone right underneath the house. So you couldn’t see any of the car at all.”

Powerlines were also knocked down in the incident, cutting electricity to the area.

Inquiries into the circumstances of the crash are still taking place, police said today.

Brewer died hours before the official Christmas-new year holiday road toll period began at 4pm on Christmas Eve.

The holiday road toll period ended at 6am yesterday with police reporting 13 deaths, down from 22 the previous year.

While it was “fantastic to have seen this number drop, any death on the roads is still one too many”, director of road policing Superintendent Steve Greally said.

“That’s still 13 families who have had their lives irrevocably changed at what should be a happy and festive time of year, and our hearts go out to them.

“It’s important that we collectively keep doing everything we can to prevent lives being lost on our roads.”