Driver's burning body takes week's road fatalities to 19

Medical records will be used to identify the driver of a car that went over a cliff and burst into flames on a remote North Canterbury road yesterday.

The death was the third on the roads at the weekend and took the toll for last week to 19.

Passers-by saw the late-model car burning about midday at the bottom of a 30m bluff beside the Okuku Pass road in a forestry area at the head of the Lees Valley.

Police said skid marks showed the car veering off a straight stretch of unsealed road.

It became airborne, slammed into a bank and then rolled down the hill and caught fire.

Sergeant John Grant of Rangiora said the intensity of the blaze was such that police had no idea of the gender of the driver, who was the car's only occupant.

The car was registered at a Mid-Canterbury address and there was no reason to think it had been stolen.

"We think the accident happened between noon and 12.15 pm," said Sergeant Grant. "Some people who were exiting the Lees Valley saw the smoke and stopped.

"They realised they could offer no assistance and went to the nearest house to call the police.

"A Carter Holt Harvey employee came straight up with a fire extinguisher and put the fire out."

Roads at the time were dry.

The Okuku Pass road remained closed for most of the afternoon while investigations continued.

The first of the weekend road deaths happened at 11.30 pm on Friday when an elderly Auckland woman was thrown from a truck that left the road in the Waioeka Gorge, in the eastern Bay of Plenty.

She was Winifred Ethel Keelan, aged 72, of Waitakere.

Sergeant Shan Jensen of Opotiki said Mrs Keelan was in a light truck that rolled down a bank, throwing both occupants out. Neither appeared to have been wearing a seatbelt.

Mrs Keelan had been returning with a load of groceries and provisions for Christmas and family functions.

A Civil Defence rescue team was called and abseilled down a steep bank to recover the body.

The driver of the truck received only a scrape to his leg.

Sergeant Jensen said police wanted to emphasise the message that seatbelts must be worn at all times.

An elderly West Coast man was killed near Darfield in Canterbury on Saturday when his car and a van collided at an intersection.

He was Keith Thomas Batty, 78, of Greymouth.

Inspector Bob Palmer of Christchurch said Mr Batty's car went through a stop sign about 4.45 pm and collided with a van travelling west.

Mr Batty, the only occupant of his car, died at the scene.

The van driver, also the only occupant of his vehicle, suffered a minor leg injury.

Sixteen people died in road accidents earlier in the week in a string of incidents that horrified police.

In the worst crash in the series of fatalities, four members of the same family died in Cambridge on Wednesday.

Police have warned motorists to take extreme care in the lead-in to the Christmas and New Year holiday period.

- NZPA