Eight die on roads in horror weekend

A pregnant woman and her family were yesterday thankful to be alive after being involved in one of seven weekend road accidents which claimed eight lives.

Gayle Lormans, who is six months pregnant, was driving her family from Raglan to Hamilton on Saturday afternoon when a white car being driven erratically came around a corner.

Within seconds the car had crossed into their lane and was side-on in front of their vehicle.

"We had nowhere to go," David Lormans said. "We hit her smack in the middle."

But his wife and unborn child were fine, as were their 17-month-old son and Mr Lormans' twin brother.

The horror weekend started on Friday night when a car rolled off State Highway 31 just north of Otorohanga, injuring a female passenger who died later in Waikato Hospital.

Horowhenua was the area worst hit by crashes.

Sergeant Noel Bigwood of Levin said a double fatal crash at Otaki, a serious-injury crash involving a train and a car at Te Horo and another involving a truck at Peka Peka made for the worst weekend of driving he had seen in a long time.

In other fatal crashes on Saturday, a person was trapped in a car and died at the scene after the vehicle rolled into a ditch at Turua, south of Thames.

A man died after his car hit a bank at Rewiti, 50km northwest of Auckland.

He was Marcus John Hogan, 34, of Birkenhead.

Constable Blair Atkinson of the police serious-crash unit says alcohol was believed to be a factor and wants to hear from witnesses who reported erratic driving before the crash.

Early yesterday, a 17-year-old female passenger was killed and the 19-year-old male driver taken to hospital after a crash on State Highway 1 at Warkworth.

The female driver of a vehicle that police said had just overtaken a truck on a bend was also seriously injured.

Yesterday morning, a pedestrian died after being hit by a truck outside the Angelsea Hotel in Hamilton.