Road crashes keep emergency services busy

North Island emergency services have been kept busy by a number of road accidents this weekend.

A 17-year-old driver was badly hurt after a car hit a concrete power pole in Ngaruawahia overnight.

The passenger was also seriously injured, and the pair are in the intensive care unit at Waikato Hospital.

In Tauranga, police said they were appalled at the number of young drunk drivers who got behind the wheel last night.

Three crashes involving young people, alcohol and speed were reported in the city, while another similar crash occurred in neighbouring Mount Maunganui.

Nobody was hurt in the Tauranga crashes, although the driver of the car in the Mount received facial injuries.

Sergeant Cam Anderson said all the drivers were in their late teens or early 20s and it was likely alcohol and speed were a factor in the crashes.

On Saturday, a 17-year-old woman was killed after a head-on crash with a Mr Whippy truck on State Highway 5, near Rotorua.

Inspector Kerry Watson said SH5 north of Rotorua was closed for two hours after the 2pm crash, which happened about 10km north of the city.

The driver of the Mr Whippy truck, a 53-year-old Hamilton man, received serious injuries to both legs and was trapped in the wreckage for more than an hour.

In a separate incident in the city, a motorcyclist received serious injuries after his bike collided with a car on Te Ngae Road.

Meanwhile, a two car crash in Northland left a man in hospital and in Auckland a man was in a serious condition after allegedly overtaking a car on a blind corner on Tamaki Drive.

Two people were also flown to Wellington Hospital after a crash on the Kapiti Coast.

- NEWSTALK ZB / NZPA