One person is dead after a two-car crash on a rural road near Hastings on Saturday.
The crash happened on Raukawa Rd, about 40 metres south of the Burma Rd intersection, south of Bridge Pa.
It took the 2020 provisional road toll in the police Napier Hawke's Bay area of Napier, Hastings and Central Hawke's Bay to 12, four more than at the same stage of last year, and the highest to the end of July for at least five years.
The crash, on a rural road which is often busy on fine weekends - including Saturday when at least 100 motorcycles had passed through 1-2 hours before the tragedy - was one of at least three crashes or other incidents attended by emergency services on road in the Napier-Hastings area during the weekend.
They included one in which a car left the road, wrecked a roadside electricity transformer and cut power supply to about 17 suburban Napier homes for more than six hours.