Police said they were called to Ormond Rd in Twyford, on the outskirts of Hastings, at 7.20am. The crash was believed to have occurred about 3.40am.
The Holden vehicle appeared to have failed to take a bend and hit a tree. Two men were taken to Hawke's Bay Hospital by ambulance with critical injuries. A hospital spokesperson said they were still in a critical condition in the intensive care unit yesterday.
There were seven other crashes elsewhere in our region.
These incidents follow on from a horror crash in Waverley last week. That smash took the lives of seven people, including a young baby and an 8-year-old girl.
Four elderly people in one vehicle, heading north towards Hawera, died instantly.
A male driver of the southbound car died at the scene, while the children's mother is in a stable condition in Wellington Hospital's intensive care unit.
The Waverley crash is the worst on New Zealand's roads in 13 years, when nine people died in a collision between a tourist van and a truck in Matamata-Piako in 2005.
The worst fatal crash in New Zealand's history was recorded in 1963, when 15 people were killed in a bus crash in Northland.
Hawke's Bay's worst road crash - the Mohaka Bridge house-bus crash which killed eight people on the night of September 10, 1995 - remains one of our region's darkest days.
With winter coming in thick and fast road conditions will inevitably become poorer.
All we can do is ensure we are cautious and prepared.
My thoughts and condolences go out to the families who have lost loved ones.
