There were 19 road deaths, down from 28, but there was a big disparity north and south of the border.

Sgt Matt Zematis welcomed the fall in the Albury region’s toll — where there were seven fatalities — down from 11 — but said any road death was of concern.

“It’s pleasing our number of fatal collisions was lower, but seven deaths is seven too many, he said.

“It is a pleasing trend that in Albury we are reducing our numbers.”

South of the border, the picture was not as bright — there were 12 road deaths in the Wodonga, Indigo and Wangaratta regions, up on 2013’s 10.

Sgt Cameron Roberts said all road deaths had a significant and lasting impact on the victim’s family and emergency services workers.

And he said lowering the toll was not the sole responsibility of police.

“Lots of people are involved in the solution which involves policing, education, the road environment and cars,” Sgt Roberts said.

“That said, the most important factor is drivers. It really comes down to awareness and behaviour.

“Most people know the right thing to do and they just need to do it.”

Sgt Roberts pointed out that five people had died in two crashes.

Lisa Turner, her son, Jack Wallace, and Peta Cox were killed in August on the Yackandandah-Wodonga road.

Their cars were hit by a BP petrol tanker that detached from its prime mover.

And in February, sisters Emily and Brooke Salske died at the scene of a single-car crash on Baranduda Boulevard.

“If you look at the number of people killed in the area, not including those two crashes, the numbers aren’t that dissimilar to last year,” Sgt Roberts said.

“But you obviously can’t be dismissive of the number of lives lost overall.

“It’s obviously very sad when anybody loses their life.

“So many of the crashes in which lives are lost on our roads are just so avoidable.”

January 21:

Carlene Kuhle, 36, of Walla died when she lost control of her Ford Falcon on a sweeping bend on the Culcairn-Holbrook Road, two kilometres east of Culcairn and hit a tree. Ms Kuhle had been returning home from a night shift at Holbrook Village Hostel.

January 31:

Baranduda sisters, Emily and Brooke Salske, aged 10 and 7, died at the scene of a single vehicle crash on Baranduda Boulevard when the vehicle their father Shaun was driving ran off the road and crashed into a tree. The sisters had been travelling home from Baranduda Primary School where two days earlier they had begun the school year. Mr Salske, 40, was flown to the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne in a serious condition.

March 1:

Well-known football identity Rod Stacey, 47, died in a road cycling accident on the Murray Valley Highway near Botts Road while cycling to his Yarrawonga home. He was struck by a car.

March 31:

Grant Finger, 42, of Moyhu, died instantly after his 1966 HR Holden crashed into a tree on the Wangaratta-Kilfeera Road near Thomas and Dinnings lanes. His car had veered onto the wrong side of the road and he had lost control after overcorrecting.

April 13:

Katherine Robinson, 29, of Tawonga, died after the motorcycle she was riding collided head-on with a utility on the Happy Valley Road at Rosewhite near Myrtleford. A Myrtleford woman, 36, in the ute suffered minor injuries and was treated at the scene.

April 26:

New Zealander Jarrah Spaan died in a crash at the intersection of Churchill Avenue and Back Wandiligong Road at Bright after the car in which he was a passenger struck a pole on a bend in the road. He had been living in Bright while undertaking excavation work on a new 520-megalitre dam at Freeburgh. The driver, John Paul Cole, 35, was jailed for five years in December after pleading guilty to dangerous driving causing death and failing to help after an accident.

May 26:

Mary Hidson, 66, from Mulwala, died after the car she and her husband William, 69, were travelling in hit a tree stump along the Wangaratta-Yarrawonga Road, near Wangaratta. Mr Hidson was flown to Royal Melbourne Hospital with serious leg and chest injuries.

June 11:

Mulwala woman Catherine Comber, 43, died after her utility was hit by a tipper truck at the intersection of Bull Plain Road and Spring Drive at Mulwala. Emergency services personnel worked for several hours to free Ms Comber from the vehicle but she died during an air ambulance flight to Melbourne.

July 9:

Wangaratta woman Marjorie Hutchieson died when the car she was travelling in with three family members slid off the Hume Freeway at Springhurst and hit a tree. Mrs Hutchieson was seriously injured and died in hospital. The accident occurred after the road had been covered in ice following a hailstorm. Her sister Shirley was flown to hospital in Melbourne while her grandson Jeremia suffered minor injuries.

August 7:

A four-year-old boy and his mother were killed in a tanker crash at Staghorn Flat that also took the life of a second woman. Lisa Turner, 33, and her son Jack Wallace, 4, of Allans Flat, died when the tanker trailer separated from its prime mover and struck their Holden Captiva SUV wagon at Staghorn Flat. Peta Cox, 67, of Yackandandah, was killed when the trailer struck her Mazda coupe.

September 26:

Ulladulla truck driver Phil Riddell died when his truck, believed to be carrying a cargo of magazines, caught fire soon after colliding with a tanker on the Hume Highway at Woomargama. Both trucks were headed north towards Holbrook.

September 28:

Wangaratta teenager Ty Robinson, 19, died when his Toyota LandCruiser left the Beechworth-Wodonga Road and hit a tree, about four kilometres from Beechworth.

October 10:

Andrew Pithers, 24, died when his motorbike ran into the back of a car turning right into the Thurgoona Country Golf Club on Thurgoona Drive at Thurgoona.

October 30:

Albury father Phillip Cusack, 42, died when his car rolled on the Chiltern-Barnawartha Road near Chiltern just after 10pm when he failed to negotiate a left-hand bend.

November 24:

A man, 58, who was a passenger in a car which spun into the path of a semi-trailer, died later in hospital following the crash on the Hume Highway at Springhurst. The female driver of the car, 29, suffered minor injuries.

November 27:

A Wangaratta woman, 46, was killed when her car and a grain truck collided at the intersection of the Murray Valley Highway and Federation Way at Rutherglen.