Horror week for road deaths continues

Three US citizens died when a car hit a logging truck on Tuesday. Picture / John van de Ven

The road toll continued to rise yesterday with three more deaths in a grim week on New Zealand roads.

A Taiwanese national was killed in a crash in Christchurch after a rental van and a 4WD vehicle collided at the junction of Jones Rd and Dawsons Rd in Templeton, about 11.20am, police said.

The driver and five passengers of the van, and the driver and sole occupant of the 4WD, were taken to Christchurch Hospital with minor to moderate injuries.

Yesterday evening the driver of a 4WD vehicle died after it left the SH1 Northern Motorway in Auckland, between Greville Rd and Oteha Valley Rd, and crashed into a lamp post.

The driver of a rental car has died in a collision with a stock truck in Canterbury this evening - the second person to be killed in a rental vehicle crash today, and the eighth road fatality in two days.

Police were called to the crash on State Highway 1, about 10km south of Greta Valley, about 6.30pm.

Witnesses said a small northbound rental car crossed the centre line and collided head-on into a stock truck and trailer unit carrying a full load of lambs. The driver and sole occupant of the rental car died at the scene.

Yesterday's deaths added to an already rapidly increasing national road toll, which jumped 25 per cent higher than at the same time last year after six deaths on the roads on Tuesday.

Before yesterday's fatalities, 43 people had died this year on New Zealand's roads - 11 more than at the same time last year. Three fatal crashes on Tuesday included a triple fatality involving a logging truck. Two women and a man killed in that collision were American citizens.