KEY POINTS:
A truck driver died after being thrown from his vehicle when it crashed yesterday on State Highway 1 near Taupo.
Police say Maurice Toto, 45, of Otara, was travelling south about 3km north of Wairakei when he lost control of his truck on a bend about 7am.
The truck crossed into the opposite lane, on to the grass and came to rest on its roof. Mr Toto was thrown from the truck and died at the scene.
SH1 was closed for about three hours while crash investigators carried out a scene examination.
The crash happened an hour after the end of the official Easter holiday period, when four people died on New Zealand's roads.
On Sunday morning, a pedestrian died after being hit by a car in the Northland township of Waima. The incident happened on SH12, 28km southwest of Kaikohe, about 10am.
The victim has not been named and neither has a 22-year-old man who died in Pukekohe on Saturday when his motorbike left the road.
On Good Friday, English tourist Adam James Birdsey, 23, died when the campervan in which he was a passenger collided with a four-wheel drive near Blenheim. The driver of the campervan has been charged over the accident and will appear in court today.
Also on Good Friday, Raymond Tuigamala, 22, of Featherston, died after his car hit a tree just north of Greytown.
The official toll was one fewer than the five who died on the roads during Easter in 2006.
- NZPA
