KEY POINTS:
The grieving father of one of the 10 people who died in a horror weekend on the roads has pleaded with young New Zealanders to realise they are not "bullet proof".
Eight of the people who died were under 25-years-old.
Police said it was a depressing weekend that showed messages about speed and alcohol were still not getting through.
Two of the crashes caused double deaths, including those of 15-year-old twins.
Three of those killed were motorcyclists.
The weekend's toll equals this year's highest and has brought the death count to 370, compared to 346 at the same time last year.
Operations manager for road policing Inspector Carey Griffiths said the weekend statistics were depressing and showed safety messages about speed and alcohol were still being ignored.
"What's sad is that on average in New Zealand at least one person a day dies (on the road). If that was the homicide there would be howls of outrage from the public," he said.
On Saturday night Caleb James Trembeth,24, a baker from Wanaka and 19-year-old Natalie Francis O'Neill from Invercargill were killed when their car crashed into a tree.
Sergeant Aaron Nicholson of Wanaka police said the white Subaru WRX, carrying five people aged 17 to 24, failed to take a tight bend on Mt Aspiring Road and crashed into a large tree at 11pm.
Mr Trembeth's father Patrick told The Press he hope the accident, which left his three-year-old grandson without a father, would be a warning to young people that they needed to think about their actions.
"Caleb was basically a good kid," he said.
"You ask yourself why it had to happen to him. But these kids sometimes think they are bullet-proof.
"I hope this might help to get the message through to them."
On Friday night 15-year-old twin sisters Shaan and Jasmine Tahere were killed in an alcohol-related smash when the car they were backseat passengers in slammed into a power pole on Auckland's northwestern motorway near Western Springs.
On Saturday morning an 18-year-old man died after his car, travelling at speed, smashed through a fence and tumbled 70m down a bank before being landing upside down near Dannevirke.
Inspector Michael Coleman said the man died at the scene with serious head injuries.
Another 18-year-old Andre Jacobs, of Kilbirnie, Wellington, died on Saturday when his 1000cc motorcycle ploughed into an oncoming car on Grays Rd near Plimmerton, north of Wellington, about 3pm.
And a 22-year-old motorcyclist died in Palmerston North yesterday when a car turned in front of him in Rugby St. His pillion passenger was also injured.
Shortly after midday on Saturday a 64-year-old man died in Gisborne when he lost control of the motorbike he was riding and crashed.
Early yesterday a 24-year-old man from Gore died after the station wagon he was a passenger in collided with a tree.
Gore police Sergeant Ken Anderson said seven people, aged 16 to 24, were in the white Ford station wagon which slid for some distance before hitting the tree on Main Street in Gore.
An elderly Invercargill man was killed when his car hit a parked vehicle in Invercargill on SAunday morning after apparently suffering a heart attack.
- NZPA
