Tourist remains in serious condition

The force of the head-on collision in which the four South American men died ripped the engine from their car and crushed its roof. Photo / One News

The sole survivor of a crash which claimed the lives of four South American tourists at National Park on Wednesday remains in a serious but stable condition in hospital.

Four Argentine skifield workers - German Caceres, 35, Agustin Donofrio, 25, Luciano Pucheta, 19, and Nicolas Ursic, 27 - were killed in the head-on crash with a truck as they drove back to their accommodation in Whakapapa after an indoor soccer game.

A critically injured 25-year-old Chilean colleague, Benjamin Blake, was taken to Waikato Hospital, and was this morning in a serious but stable condition in the high dependency unit.

Police said the Holden Commodore the five men were in was overtaking in a dip in the road, just north of the Makatote Viaduct, when a truck and trailer came around a corner from the opposite direction.

Inspector Steve Mastrovich said the car "smacked head-on into the truck and trailer''.

Any prudent driver would not have overtaken another vehicle along that section of road, he said.

He said the tourists were driving in different circumstances to what they would have been used to.

The tow truck driver who attended the crash last night, Colin Fredricksen, told APNZ it was one of the worst crashes he had seen on the job. "I've seen others that have been bad, but not so many people involved.''