KEY POINTS:
An apprentice builder is thanking divine intervention after he walked away virtually unscathed from a horror crash which killed another man in Wellington early yesterday.
And in the South Island, one man is dead and five others injured after a bus crashed into a stand of trees near Palmerston, northeast of Dunedin.
Twenty-year-old Phil Willson's work van was written off when it collided with another vehicle on Wellington's Western Hutt Rd.
A 41-year-old Lower Hutt man was killed when he was thrown from his Toyota Corona in the accident. Police say they believe the dead man had been drinking alcohol on Friday night before driving home.
"I think that was God's hand looking out for me," said Willson, who suffered bruising to his legs.
"I was very lucky. I was going back to the shed in Lower Hutt to get my tool apron. I saw this madman coming up behind me.
"He hit the barrier, he was side-on; a split second later I hit him.
"I saw him come out. It was pretty horrible. He definitely wasn't wearing a seatbelt."
Willson says he hopes to be fit to meet the deadline for the Apprentice of the Year competition next week.
"It hits a few things home. I won't be driving without a seatbelt again."
Yesterday, a small Nissan Civilian 16-seater bus left the road and hit a stand of trees near the Katiki Overbridge on State Highway 1 outside of Palmerston.
Six middle-aged businessmen were travelling in the blue and white bus towards Dunedin on a "private excursion", according to police.
Local ambulance services took four people with moderate injuries to Dunedin Hospital, while the Otago Rescue helicopter transported the fifth person.
The small bus had driven off the road around 12.20pm near Shag Point, according to a police spokesman. Shag Point is approximately 10km north of Palmerston, which is 57km north-east of Dunedin.
"The driver has been unable to bring the vehicle back on to the road," Senior Constable Darren Low told 3News.
The main highway was closed for much of the afternoon while the site was investigated and cleared by serious crash and commercial vehicle investigation units.It took more than three hours to free the body of the man killed in the accident. Kelvin Clearwater, Palmerston's deputy chief fire officer, said it was lucky there had been cars passing by the spot.
He said when firefighters arrived the scene was "under control".
"There wasn't a lot we could do except some road control and looking after the other people. Some passers-by had stopped to help - one was a nurse - so they were taking care of the injured people."
The travellers were on their way from Ashburton to Dunedin, Clearwater believed.
The party had apparently stopped at a cafe before the accident.
Last night police had not released the name of the dead man.
A woman was killed and two people were injured in a two-car smash at Whitford, east of Auckland, about 7pm on Friday.
Police said the crash happened at the intersection of Beachlands and Whitford-Maraetai roads.
The woman, aged about 30, died at the scene.
The Westpac rescue helicopter flew a seriously hurt man in his 20s to Middlemore Hospital. A woman, also in her 20s, suffered moderate injuries.
