Death toll on roads worst in 10 years

New Zealand was last night suffering its blackest Easter on the roads for 10 years, as the death toll from crashes reached eight.

With another day and night of the holiday break yet to go, police fear the toll may reach double figures for the first time since 1994.

Last year's Easter toll was equalled early in the holiday, at about 2.30am on Friday, when four young men died in a one-car high-speed crash near Pukekohe.

Another four deaths in separate smashes yesterday doubled the count to the highest Easter toll since 1995, when nine people died on the country's roads.

The latest carnage comes after four relatively good years, including 2002 and 2003, when just three people each were killed - equal to the lowest toll since holiday period records began in 1956.

Yesterday's spate of fatal crashes began at about 4.15am, when a 58-year-old Reporoa man died after a car ploughed into the back of his parked vehicle on State Highway 5, southeast of Rotorua. Two men in the other car were taken to hospital, including one with serious injuries who was prised from the wreckage by emergency workers.

A man in his mid-20s died about 8.30am in Northland after losing control of his car as it overturned on a gravel road near Waipu.

Southeast of Auckland, motorcyclist Barry Clive Everett, 40, from Howick, was killed at Clevedon at about 2.40pm after colliding with a horsetruck and becoming trapped.

Police said a person died after a head-on crash about 2.10pm near Cass, about 25km east of Arthurs Pass, on State Highway 73.

A Christchurch police spokeswoman said five others were injured, one seriously.

The highway between Springfield and Arthurs Pass was closed as a result.

The holiday period, which officially began at 4pm on Thursday, was soon marred by a crash on State Highway 22 between Drury and Pukekohe early the next morning in which four occupants of a speeding car were killed as it crashed and burst into flames.

A taxi driver told police the car overtook him in a passing lane at between 130km/h and 140km/h.

The car's 19-year-old driver, Sebastian Sigamoney, was said by his parents to have been "obsessed with speed" and to have told them he often exceeded 200km/h.

Sixteen-year-old Steven Upson, and 25-year-old Rodney Mountford were also killed in the crash. Police have yet to name another 16-year-old who died.

The sole survivor, 16-year-old Shane Sheehan, is fighting for his life in hospital with critical injuries.

Transport Safety Minister Harry Duynhoven insisted last night that legislation enabling police to impound cars clocked at 140km/h or faster was deterring some people but he despaired at the defiance of a hard-core minority.

"It's extremely sad - the message is not getting through to some of these folks," he said.

Despite the grimness of this year's statistic, it is still well below the record Easter death toll of 21 in 1971.

'No one to blame' for car smash

The mother of a teenager who survived a crash which claimed the lives of his four friends says no one is to blame, but she hopes teenagers will learn from the tragedy.

"Life's too short. You can have fun without speeding," said Tina Sheehan, keeping a vigil at Auckland Hospital where her 16-year-old son Shane is in a critical condition.

"They chose to be in that car, they knew what they were doing. It was good clean fun. There's no fault, no blame, no nothing."

Shane was returning from a night out with friends when their car left the road On State Highway 22 early on Friday morning.

A witness said the vehicle passed him at speeds of up to 140km/h just before it crashed into trees and burst into flames with three of the five occupants inside.

Shane and another backseat passenger were thrown from the Honda Integra before the impact near Pukekohe.

The 19-year-old driver, Sebastian Sigamoney, had told his parents he often drove faster than 200km/h and believed he would die young in a car crash.

Tina Sheehan said she knew Sebastian and his family well and it was "purely an accident".

"Sebastian's parents, I've been around and given them hugs and they're coming up [to the hospital]. You can't change what's happened."

Tina Sheehan is being supported at the hospital's intensive care unit by friends and teenage friends of her son. More than 100 friends visited the hospital on Saturday, she said.

Family friend Barbara Evans said Shane was a special young man with a "heart of gold" and loved his mother. "He always has a smile on his face."

Shane was "car crazy" and had pursued an ambition to become a mechanic.

Friends who celebrated New Year's Eve with Shane at Whangamata said he looked out for other people and would often prevent people from driving if they had been drinking.

Tina Sheehan said she believed Shane survived to give his friends some hope. "It's a pretty sad town," she said of Pukekohe.