Two deaths on weekend roads take toll for the year to seven

A young girl and a retired man were killed in weekend road accidents, bringing the year's toll to seven.

Waimaria Jean Aramoana, 6, of Whangarei, died after being hit by a car at 5pm on Saturday at Waiohau, between Murupara and Te Teko in the eastern Bay of Plenty. The girl, a pedestrian, died at the scene. Police are investigating.

Retired man John Raymond Rickard, 70, died when the car he was driving collided with a train at Goose Bay, just south of Kaikoura, on Saturday.

Inspector Warren Kemp, of police southern communications, said Mr Rickard had been going fishing with a friend when the 7am accident happened.

State Highway 1 at Goose Bay was reduced to one lane for some time after the accident.

The passenger, a man in his 50s or 60s, was in Christchurch Hospital with serious injuries.

* Two American Mormon missionaries killed in a fiery crash in South Canterbury on Friday were Jonathan Russell Talmadge, 22, and Bradley Jay Isle, 20.

Ashburton resident Raema Agnes Price, 79, also died.

Police said the Americans' car appeared to have crossed the centre line of the Waitohi-Temuka Rd near Temuka and crashed head-on with a car Ms Price was travelling in. Speed was also a factor.

The Americans' car was engulfed in flames so high that firefighters did not realise at first where the fire was coming from.

The driver of the car Ms Price was in and her husband were taken to Timaru Hospital with serious injuries.

- NZPA