KEY POINTS:
Three people are dead after three motorbikes collided between Christchurch and Akaroa yesterday.
The accident happened at 4.30pm on State Highway 75, 16km southwest of Christchurch, bringing the official holiday road toll to seven.
Constable Chris Jones of Selwyn police said two bikes each carrying a pillion passenger collided near Gebbies Pass Rd after one attempted to overtake a line of cars.
Both male riders died at the scene, while one of their passengers - believed to be the rider's wife or girlfriend - died later at Christchurch Hospital.
The other passenger was taken to hospital by ambulance. Her injuries were unknown last night.
A single biker travelling with one of the couples sustained moderate injuries after falling off while trying to avoid debris from the crash.
A woman who lives nearby said the roads in the area are "deadly". "They are quite twisty and have very dangerous corners. There are crashes along here all the time."
The first fatal holiday crash was reported at 8pm on Christmas Eve. Holley Janelle Geck, 17, was killed when her car flipped and ended up in a ditch in Pukekohe, south of Auckland, just a few hundred metres from her home.
David James Hill, 23, died on Christmas Day when the car in which he was a passenger crashed into a bank north of Morrinsville.
At 5.30pm on Christmas Day, Manukau man James Philip Vesey, 84, failed to give way to another vehicle and was slammed into a third west of Morrinsville.
Mangakino woman Kathaleena Lindsay, 23, died on Christmas Eve when the car she was driving crashed into a concrete pillar on the Whakamaru Dam.