Waikato crash takes holiday road toll to seven

One person is dead after a car carrying five people left the road and hit a tree in Waikato, taking the number of Christmas period road deaths to seven.

Police were alerted about 7.30am to the crash on State Highway 4 near the Eight Mile Junction intersection with SH3, southwest of Te Kuiti.

The Westpac Waikato Air Ambulance said three of those injured in the Eight Mile Junction crash were in an "extremely critical" condition.

A 38-year-old, an eight year-old girl and a six-year-old child were taken to Waikato Hospital.

Inspector Gavin MacDonald of police northern communications said shortly after 9am the road was completely blocked and motorists were advised to avoid the area as there were no side roads to divert traffic along.

A helicopter was being used to transport those injured in the smash to Waikato Hospital.

About 8.30pm yesterday a motorcyclist was killed in a collision with a car on SH1 at Johnsons Hill, between Orewa and Waiwera.

Yesterday, police also named a 15-year-old killed in Wanganui on Christmas day when the van in which he was a passenger went out of control.

He was Richard Hohipa of Wanganui, formerly of Levin.

Police said the vehicle rolled repeatedly, and emergency services were unable to save the boy, a rear passenger who was not wearing a seatbelt.

Two females in the van were taken to Wanganui Hospital.

Other road victims this Christmas include a 30-year-old man who died in a crash on Christmas night on State Highway 35, about 6km east of Te Kaha in the eastern Bay of Plenty.

The man was the only person involved in the crash, to which police were alerted about 6pm.

On Saturday morning, two people died and several others were injured in a head-on crash on SH1 in Northland, about 5km south of Kawakawa.

Police said the dead were an 86-year-old man who was driving a southbound car and a middle-aged woman who was a front seat passenger in a northbound van.

In north Canterbury, Kevin Joseph McAnalley, 44, of Amberley, died after he became trapped in the burning wreckage of his car which collided with a passenger train at a rail crossing near Sefton, about 6.30pm on Friday.

- NZPA