KEY POINTS:
Police have named a 20-year-old killed after being hit by a car in Gore at the weekend.
He was Marcus Lindsay Cooper, a meat worker from Gore.
Mr Cooper had been at a work function at a local hotel on Saturday night and police were still trying to establish his movements before he was hit about 12.15am, Sergeant Ian Temple of Gore police told NZPA.
Police were investigating culpability and whether the driver, a 67-year-old woman from Gore, would face charges.
She was "very upset" by what had happened, Mr Temple said.
Two other people died on New Zealand's roads this weekend.
Stewart Thomas Howell, 23, was killed in a hit and run in Ashburton, about 1am Saturday.
He was discovered by a passing motorist, who called police.
His mother Dianne Howell said the family were shattered and his partner Kandice Gordon, the mother of his three month-old-son Tyler, was a "bloody mess".
Mr Howell's death had a cruel twist as he was a car enthusiast, but had left it behind and decided to walk home when he was hit, his mother told The Press.
"If it had been him driving a car we could have dealt with it.
"He drove everywhere. But to hear he was doing the right thing and walking home, it's bloody shocking."
Police are seeking witnesses.
Police are warning of the dangers of riding in the back of utility vehicles after a 17-year-old girl was killed when she fell from the back of one at a beach near Dargaville on Saturday morning.
She suffered major head injuries and died in hospital yesterday morning.
Dargaville Police Sergeant Sue Leach said the tragedy was avoidable.
Her name has not yet been released.
Police are seeking witnesses to the incident.
A few weeks ago eight-year-old Julius Arthur Huata-Cracknell was killed after he fell from the back of a ute driven by his father on a gravel road on the Mahia peninsula, in northern Hawke's Bay.
- NZPA