A new safety rating system for state highways will provide important information for drivers, Transport Minister Steven Joyce says.
The KiwiRAP Star Ratings have been developed by the AA and the Transport Agency.
They provide an assessment of the relative levels of safety built into state highways.
One-star roads have the lowest safety rating and five-star roads the highest.
Mr Joyce said KiwiRAP provided ratings for 89% of the state highway network, covering more than 10,000km of highways with speed limits of 80kmh or more.
Most (70%) of Otago's rated sections received a three star rating.
As well as influencing driver behaviour, the programme was also intended to help improve road engineering, AA Otago District Council vice-chairman Jack Crawford said.
Of the state highways rated in Otago and Southland, 971km (51%) was rated as presenting a high risk to individual road users - the worst figure for the country.
Mr Crawford attributed that to a combination of fewer passing lanes on Southern roads, the terrain and the weather.
The rating was based on the number of accidents per the volume of traffic.
"Because we have such a low volume of traffic, a few crashes can skew it quite easily."
Details are on www.kiwirap.co.nz
