A head-on smash on State Highway 10 was caused by an alleged drink-driver parking in the middle of the lane on the wrong side of the road at a blind corner.
The crash occurred on Kaeo Hill, between Kaeo township and the Matauri Bay turnoff, just before 10pm on Thursday.
One of the drivers had to be cut out of the wreckage by firefighters from the Kerikeri and Kaeo brigades, with that car later bursting into flames while on the back of a tow truck.
Firefighters also closed the road to allow an investigator from the police Serious Crash Unit to examine the scene and the Northland Electricity Helicopter to land on the highway.
Both the suspected drink-driver and the man in the other car, a night-shift manager on his way to work, were airlifted to Whangarei Hospital.