Pregnant mum and baby die

Photo / Richard Robinson

A heavily pregnant woman, a man test-riding a $20,000 motorcycle and a South Korean student are among the weekend's road victims.

Twelve people and an unborn child were killed in nine crashes - taking the weekend toll to four more than Labour Weekend. Three were double fatalities - the crash involving the cyclists, a head-on collision in Turangi in which a woman, 20, and her stepfather, 47, died, and last night's motorcycle crash at Patutahi near Gisborne in which a man and a woman lost their lives.

Those fatal collisions followed a particularly bad Saturday which ended with a heavily pregnant woman and her unborn child being killed when a car driven by a teenager crossed the centre line near Palmerston North.

The teenager was last night in a critical condition in hospital. A 26-year-old woman from the other car was in a satisfactory condition.

Earlier on Saturday, Peter Townsend of Hamilton died after crashing through a fence minutes after picking up his brand-new $20,000 motorbike.

South Korean student Goen Park, 23, was killed when he was thrown through the windscreen of a van which rolled on the West Coast.

Irishman Leslie Armitage, 23, died when his Land Rover crashed in Central Otago's Ida Valley; a man was killed when his car rolled on a rural road east of Hamilton and a cyclist died in a collision near Palmerston North.

In an off-road crash not in the official toll, 14-year-old Leslie Noema-Whakamoa died after being trapped under a vehicle which crashed on a four-wheel-drive track south of Whakatane.