Road toll 21 higher than last year

3.00pm

Road deaths so far this year number 21 more than the same time last year, with five people losing their lives yesterday.

The official road toll this morning was 248, compared with 227 last year, the Land Transport Safety Authority said.

There have been 17 deaths so far this month, compared with eight for July 2002.

Five people died yesterday in separate accidents involving an ambulance, a train, a truck and a car.

Police were today still trying to identify a pedestrian in his 20s who was killed when he was hit by a car at a central Auckland intersection about 7pm last night.

It was hoped dental records could be used to identify the man, who had extensive head injuries, an Auckland police spokesman told NZPA.

The driver of the car which collided with the man had been spoken to but it was still unclear how the accident happened.

Gloria Kumeroa Barbarich, 19, of Nuhaka, died after the car she was in collided with a truck on State Highway 2 near Whakaki, 18km west of Wairoa, at 2.50pm.

Miss Barbarich's sister, a passenger in the vehicle, suffered minor injuries. The truck driver was unhurt.

A 44-year Hawera woman, Wendy Collins, was killed in a freak accident yesterday when her car was hit on a level crossing by a train driven by her partner at Eltham in Taranaki.

In Northland, a 69-year-old pedestrian was killed after being struck by an ambulance about 6.40pm on State Highway 10, northeast of Kaitaia.

The dead man's name had not yet been released, with police still trying to contact his next of kin this morning.

Papanui police in Christchurch were today investigating the death of a person in an accident yesterday.

In the Christchurch accident, a woman in her 30s was killed when her car left the road near an intersection and hit a tree.

She died as firefighters tried to free her from the wreckage about 6pm.

- NZPA

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