KEY POINTS:
A 6-month-old child owes its life to being correctly restrained in a baby capsule when two cars collided head-on in central Canterbury yesterday.
Seven people were involved in the crash, near Springfield, about 60km inland from Christchurch on State Highway 73 to the West Coast.
The collision between the Mazda 626 and the Subaru Impreza station wagon occurred shortly before 10.44am, in a 100km/h zone on a straight section of road.
Two people had to be cut from the vehicles and were flown to Christchurch Hospital in a critical condition. The others were driven to hospital in ambulances.
The 6-month-old was correctly strapped into a baby capsule in one of the vehicles, and as a result suffered only minor injuries, said a St John Ambulance spokesman.
"If the baby hadn't been in it and correctly restrained, it might not have been a good story."
Meanwhile, a teenager was killed in another head-on collision, 11km north of Roxburgh, in Central Otago, on Saturday night.
Police said the driver of the south-bound vehicle, Dane Robert Marshall, 15, of Alexandra, appeared to cross the centre line and then lost control after trying to move back to the correct lane.
The oncoming vehicle took evasive action, but struck the teenager's car.
Both drivers had to be cut free and Dane Marshall was flown to Dunedin Hospital, where he died of his injuries.
The other driver, Shane Carroll, 21, of Roxburgh, suffered serious leg injuries.
A 21-year-old man was killed and another suffered minor injuries after their car rolled at Awatapu, 10km south of Dargaville, about 7pm on Saturday.
A police spokesman said it was not clear what caused the accident.
The name of the dead man was not known last night. The injured man was taken to the Dargaville medical centre.
