Two injured in road carnage

A woman is in a serious condition and a man was left with head injuries after two separate car crashes in Northland yesterday.
Ambulance officers and firefighters were called to Old Bay Rd, a link between the Bay of Islands and Kaikohe, about 4.30pm after a car and small truck collided.
Ambulance officers managed to pull the female driver through the back door of the car before firefighters from Kaikohe arrived. Both the woman and a male passenger in the car were taken to Bay of Islands Hospital, in Kawakawa.
However, the Lion Air Ambulance helicopter later flew the woman to Whangarei Hospital, where she stayed overnight and was reported to be in a serious condition.
The male driver of the small truck was not injured.
Kaikohe police Sergeant Rika Wihongi said officers were yet to speak to the drivers of both vehicles and it was uncertain as to which direction the two vehicles had been travelling or how the crash happened.
Only an hour and a half earlier emergency services were called to a collision between a van and a car at the intersection of State Highway One and Port Marsden Highway.
An elderly man was trapped in his Nissan car and had to be cut free. Ambulance officers placed a brace round the man's neck as volunteer firefighters from Ruakaka worked with cutting equipment to remove the top of his car.
Traffic was diverted around the scene as they worked, with north-bound traffic driving through the forecourt of the nearby petrol station.
Talking at the scene Constable Conan Brown said after initial investigations it appeared the van had been following a south-bound logging truck which had turned into Port Marsden Highway.
The driver of the car had pulled out and turned to head north when it collided with the van. The driver of the van was uninjured but shaken by the incident.
Just over a month ago three people were left injured in a two-car pile up at the same intersection.
Land Transport New Zealand have planned a $3 million roundabout at the Marsden Point turnoff, 150m north of the existing intersection on SH1. The new roundabout is being built in response to the high number of crashes at the existing intersection and to help improve traffic flow.
A $5m upgrade of Old Bay Rd is scheduled to start this year in order to cut travel time between the Bay of Islands and Kaikohe.
LTNZ wants the number of deaths and injuries from crashes in Northland to be less than 340 by 2010. Last year the figure was 444.