A man has died and two others have been seriously injured in the first fatal crash of New Zealand's Christmas and New Year road toll season.
The man was driving a Nissan rental car towards Tauranga on State Highway 2 about 2.15pm yesterday when he was in a collision with a car travelling in the opposite direction. The two occupants, an Omokoroa couple aged in their 70s, were trapped in their mangled Mazda for about 30 minutes as firefighters worked to cut them free.
The couple was taken to Tauranga Hospital. The 70-year-old man was last night in a critical condition in the hospital's intensive care unit while the 74-year-old woman was in a stable condition. The crash between Gill Lane and Te Karaka Drive shut down the section of SH2 for four hours, with heavy holiday traffic being diverted down Te Puna Quarry Rd.
Acting head of Western Bay of Plenty road policing Sergeant Nigel Ramsden said excessive speed was not a factor in the crash. The vehicles were travelling about 70km/h as part of long lines of traffic, he said.
From the scene Mr Ramsden pointed to Gill Lane, barely 100m away, and referred to the death of motorcyclist Craig Ritchie when he and a 10-tonne truck and trailer unit collided at the intersection last month.