One dead after two-truck crash

A 56-year-old Manukau man died when the truck he was driving collided with a petrol tanker on State Highway 1 at Meremere in Waikato early today.

The crash happened at an intersection near an old power station about 5.40am, Inspector Darroch Todd of the police northern communications centre said. 

The name of the dead man has not been released. The tanker driver suffered minor injuries.

SH1 was closed for the morning while emergency services attended the scene.

The truck crash death pushed the weekend road toll to three, after two other crashes in the North Island on Friday evening.

A woman died after the northbound Honda Accord she was driving crossed the centre line into the path of a Nissan Patrol just north of Turangi about 5.40pm.

The woman, 22, was cut from her vehicle about 30 minutes after the crash but died in the Lion Foundation Rescue Helicopter while in transit to Waikato Hospital, Taupo police said.

The second fatal crash on Friday happened about 30 minutes later, when a male motorcyclist died after a head-on collision with a car on SH55 between Taradale and Fernhill, near Napier.

The man died at the scene and the driver of the car was being interviewed by police.

"It appears the car was overtaking another vehicle," Sergeant Graham Single of Napier police told NZPA.

- NZPA