KEY POINTS:
A teenager was last night fighting for his life after the go-kart he received for Christmas collided with a motorbike just 20 metres from his home.
Kawa Curtis, 15, was airlifted from Kawakawa Bay to Auckland City Hospital yesterday evening with serious head injuries, only a few days after celebrating his birthday with family and friends.
His younger brother Sydney, 8, and friend Kadin Ford, 15, watched with horror as the crash occurred on Kawakawa-Orere Rd at 3pm.
"He was mucking around and crashed," Kadin said last night.
"The motorbike fella flew about eight metres in the air. Kawa flipped off and lay on the ground.
"I was telling him to breathe because he wasn't. There was a big hole in his leg and crack in his head. He couldn't open his eyes."
The former Papakura College student had been working with his stepfather Ross Williams putting up electric security fences.
Williams, a Meremere speedway racer, bought the go-kart, which can reach speeds of 50km/h, for his stepson to do up.
Kawa decided to fix the car and drive it before his stepfather had the chance to check it.
Kadin and another friend, Jacob Marsh-Bently, 14, believed the go-kart brakes were faulty.
"He would have tried to stop it but it takes a long time to slow," Jacob said.
The motorcycle rider was taken to Middlemore Hospital with minor injuries.
Serious Crash Unit constable Steve Carey said investigations were continuing.
It was just one of a string of serious smashes on another horror day on New Zealand roads.
A family of four had a narrow escape after their car struck a 14-wagon train travelling at 70km/h outside Hawera in Taranaki.
Neighbours were expecting to find bodies after the train ground to a halt, 400m from the wrecked Mitsubishi Galant at 11.20am.
Instead, they found farm worker David Maindonald and partner Carmen Mansfield injured in the front seats.
In the back were their 8-month and 4-year-old children, uninjured and secured by seatbelts.
"Everybody's fine," said Shirley Maindonald last night, as she and husband Roger prepared to visit their son and his family in Taranaki Base Hospital.
Maindonald suffered a broken collarbone and Mansfield a head injury in the accident, which saw their car spin into a lamppost.
The crossing has no lights or barrier arm, although safety concerns prompted rail agency Ontrack to issue a statement urging motorists to drive with caution.
In the Bay of Plenty, a motorcyclist's leg was severed after his vehicle collided with a car at the intersection of Williams Rd and State Highway 36 south of Tauranga about 4.15pm.
And a three-car crash near the Cambridge Golf Course on State Highway 1 caused diversions for northbound traffic yesterday afternoon. Two people were seriously injured and a third suffered moderate injuries in the incident shortly before 2.45pm.
