KEY POINTS:
A man in his early 20s has died after the vehicle he was a passenger in ran off the road and into a ditch in Whangarei yesterday.
The man was taken to Whangarei Hospital but died overnight, police said.
No further details will be released until his relatives were told.
He was in a four wheel drive vehicle which left State Highway 1 near Otaika, south of Whangarei just before 4pm yesterday .
No other vehicles were involved and police said they could not rule out driver fatigue as a contributing factor.
The man was taken off his life support system early today and died soon after.
The other two people in the vehicle were not badly hurt.
Whangarei police said they wanted to hear from anyone who saw the dark blue Isuzu Bighorn vehicle travelling north before the accident.
Police said the accident was in the same area as another fatal accident on Thursday which killed a woman, 63, and left another with serious injuries.
Inspector Ian Brooker from the police Northern Comunications Centre in Auckland said motorists need to drive to the conditions, especially with the forecast for heavy rain over the weekend.
- NZPA
