Easter road toll climbs to two

File photo / NZ Herald

The Easter holiday road toll stands at two after two crashes in the Waikato today.

A collision between a truck and car on Gordonton Rd in Taupiri, 26km north west of Hamilton, at 9.40am left one person dead and several others with critical injuries, northern police communications Inspector Lou Alofa said.

Emergency services remained at the scene and traffic was closed off at the intersection of State Highway 1 and SH1B to the north and where SH1B intersect with Henry St in the south.

Motorists were advised not to use SH1B at all.

Two hours earlier, a man died in a single-car crash on Wardville Rd in Waharoa, 53km east of Hamilton.

Mr Alofa said it appeared the man lost control of the vehicle, going off the road and into a nearby paddock where he crashed into a bank.

Last year over the Easter holiday period seven people died and 191 were injured on New Zealand roads.

The official Easter holiday period runs from 4pm yesterday until 6am on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, in Auckland, a woman and two children are in hospital after being thrown from a vehicle in a crash on Auckland's southern motorway overnight.

The crash happened about midnight just north of the Highbrook off-ramp when one vehicle changed lanes colliding with another vehicle, northern police communications Inspector Lou Alofa said.

Two children and a woman were thrown from a people-mover, with a young boy being thrown from the northbound lane into the southbound lane. He was found there by the first police officer on the scene.

All three people were taken to Middlemore Hospital. The woman was reported to be in a critical condition. There was no indication of the children's conditions.

The motorway was reopened about 3.30am.

- NZPA