Road crash claims ninth victim

One of the country's worst road crashes claimed its ninth victim early today when an Indian woman died in Waikato Hospital.

Ahalya Thirumuthy, 20, had been in a critical condition since last Wednesday when a mini-bus full of tourists slammed into a timber truck near Morrinsville in Waikato.

Eight of the nine people in the mini-bus died at the scene and Miss Thirumuthy died in hospital at 2.30am today, taking the toll to nine, police said.

Ms Thirumuthy's mother, father and sister died in the crash.

The other dead were the New Zealand driver of the tourist bus, his Thai girlfriend, an American couple, and a French man.

All but one of the victims has been named.

Police said they had contacted the family of the French man killed and hoped to release his name once he had been formally identified.

Senior Sergeant Ross Ardern from the Morrinsville police said the death of Ms Thirumuthy overnight had devastated the police team.

- NZPA