Seven road deaths bad start to season

Seven people were killed and a baby orphaned in road crashes at the weekend in a black buildup to Christmas.

Six of the victims died on Saturday, including a man and woman in a three-vehicle pile-up on State Highway 1 north of Wellington in the afternoon, although the couple's baby was pulled from the wreckage unhurt.

Rescuers found 5 1/2-month-old Carlos Tinielu uninjured in a child restraint in the back seat of the car in which his parents died.

Avanoa Tinielu, 34, and Apolina Marie Atoni, 22, were killed when a van and their car collided about 4.40pm.

They had been driving from Paraparaumu to Porirua to see family.

Police said a northbound van appeared to have crossed the centre line, colliding with one car before crashing head-on into Mr Tinielu's vehicle.

The Westpac rescue helicopter flew the van's driver, who suffered leg and pelvic injuries, and baby Carlos to Wellington Hospital.

A 16-year-old Hamilton student, Amelia Jane Henry, was killed when the northbound car in which she was a passenger veered across southbound lanes and crashed into a power pole in Ulster St, Hamilton, shortly after midnight on Saturday.

 

A 40-year-old man died after a four-wheel-drive vehicle flipped into a ditch at Opotiki at 1.50 on Saturday morning.

Police said the accident happened on State Highway 2 when the vehicle crashed into the waist-deep ditch and overturned.

At 3.30am, a 47-year-old Tauranga electrician, Craig Allen Culley, was killed when he was hit by a car as he walked across Cameron Rd near his home in the city.

A young woman was killed after a two-car crash on State Highway 1 at Dome Valley, north of Warkworth, at about 10.30am on Saturday.

The crash left an occupant of the southbound vehicle critically injured.

A crash near Levin yesterday, involving two vehicles, claimed the weekend's seventh victim.

The latest spate of crashes has dismayed police, who are vowing to redouble efforts to keep the road toll below last year's 461 deaths.

So far this year 394 people have died on the roads.