Road toll rises to eleven

A fatal accident site north of Maungatapu Bridge, top right. Photo / Bay of Plenty Times

Holiday road toll (4pm December 24th - 6am January 5th)

Three deaths yesterday and two more early this morning have brought the Christmas road toll to nine.

Two people died when the vehicle they were in crashed off the road in Northland just before 6am.

The accident happened near the intersection of State Highway 12 and Waihotu Road, Opononi, 50km south west of Kaikohe, Inspector Cornelius Kluessien of northern police communications said.

A third occupant was injured in the crash.

Yesterday an American journalist died in a road accident near Blenheim.

Former Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell, 68, a veteran editor who helped lead two news organisations to three Pulitzer Prizes, suffered fatal injuries when she was struck by a car while on holiday in New Zealand, stepson Nick Coleman told The Associated Press from Minnesota.

Ms Howell was hit just after 12.10pm, west of Cravens Road, on Rapaura Road near Spring Creek, the Marlborough Express reported.

She was taken to hospital, but later died.

At the time of the accident, she was on holiday with her husband, former University of Minnesota president C. Peter Magrath.

Meanwhile Tauranga police have named a 68-year-old retired woman who died in a two-car-collision on SH2, near the Maungutapu Bridge, a few kilometres east of Tauranga, about 5.35am yesterday.

She was Diane Margaret Wilton-Jones, of Tauranga, Senior Sergeant Wayne Mills said.

An ambulance spokesman said another two people were taken to hospital, one with serious injuries and the other with minor injuries.

Ms Wilton-Jones was the fourth person to die on Bay of Plenty roads in two days.

Also yesterday, the sole occupant of a car died after his vehicle flipped and rolled on Gabriels Gully Rd, Waiotahi, near Opotiki in Eastern Bay of Plenty. The crash happened at 1.19am, police said.

"It appears that the driver was thrown from the vehicle when it flipped off the road and into a paddock," police northern communications Inspector Lance Burdett said.

One person died in a head-on crash on SH2 at Matata, 23km northwest of Whakatane, about 6pm on Thursday.

A man died about an hour earlier in Opotiki after speeding through a police checkpoint. He ignored signals to stop, then crashed into a ditch about 200 metres down the road.

On Friday afternoon, a teenage girl died and two other 16-year-olds suffered life-threatening injuries after a crash north of Queenstown. Police said the killed girl was Jessica Law, 16.

Two vehicles with three occupants each collided head-on on Littles Rd, near Arthur's Point, 6km north of Queenstown about 4.20pm after the vehicle Ms Law was a passenger in crossed the centre line, Sergeant Steve Watt said.

Police said it appeared speed was a factor in the crash.

Ms Law was the first person to die on New Zealand roads this year.

On Wednesday a motorcyclist died after crashing on SH6 near Punakaiki, 42km northeast of Greymouth on the West Coast.

Picton man Murray John Roberts, 71, was killed on Monday when his car collided with another vehicle on SH1 southeast of Blenheim.

Ngaruawahia man Paul McLaughlin, 31, was killed in a crash in Waikato early on Christmas Day.

The holiday period began at 4pm on December 24 and ends at 6am on January 5.

- NZPA