Seven killed at weekend

Seven people died on New Zealand roads at the weekend.

And a motorcyclist was last night fighting for his life after a collision between a taxi and his machine in Whenuapai.

Police said the man, who has not been named, was in serious condition after the crash on Brighams Creek Rd yesterday.

In the worst accident of a black weekend, three people died when a car went through a roadside fence and plunged down a steep bank on State Highway 1, about 3km north of Taihape, on Saturday morning.

Killed were Rebecca Lind, 18, of Ohakune, Mary Potangaroa, 19, and Brian O'Neill, 23, both of Porirua.

The sole survivor, 17-year-old Alexander Brewster, of Ohakune, is in a stable condition at Wanganui Base Hospital.

On Friday, a 4-year-old girl was killed when she was hit by a car on the Tuakau-Port Waikato road, south of Auckland, about 6.15 pm. She was Destiny Raquel Pepe-Foster of Papakura.

A 21-year-old man was killed instantly when he was thrown from the back of a ute that failed to take a bend outside Greytown in Wairarapa at 11.30 pm on Saturday.

The man and a 17-year-old woman, riding on the tray, were both thrown off. The woman was flown to Wellington Hospital with moderate chest injuries.

On Saturday afternoon, a 78-year-old Waitoa man died at the scene of a two-car collision at Te Aroha, in the eastern Waikato.

A 55-year-old Kumeu woman was killed when the car in which she was a passenger and a van crashed head-on.

The accident occurred on State Highway 16 at Whenuapai, northwest of Auckland at 4.40 pm on Saturday.

- NZPA

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