A Wairoa woman has been identified as the driver of a car who died when the vehicle left a highway in Northern Hawke's Bay on Friday.
She was 65-year-old Judith Shadbolt, the sole occupant of a northbound car which ran into a ditch off the Napier-Wairoa road about 3.25pm, between Kotemaori and Raupunga and about 2km south of the Mohaka Viaduct.
It took the road toll in the Eastern Police district of Hawke's Bay and Gisborne Tairawhiti this year provisionally to 22 - double the toll for the region from the period from January 1 to October 20 last year.
While it happened on the Hawke's Bay Anniversary public holiday, it was just over half an hour before the start of the Labour Weekend road toll period which started at 4pm on Friday and ends tomorrow at 6am.
The toll yesterday stood at two, being the deaths of women in crashes near Christchurch and south of Taupo on Saturday morning, and taking the nationwide toll for the year past 300, almost 50 more than at the same stage last year, and more than 100 more than at the same stage of road toll low-year 2013.