Weekend crashes leave five dead

A man who died when a car rolled on the Kapiti coast about 9 o'clock last night took the weekend road toll to five.

He was a passenger in the car, which ran off the road and hit a fence.

The woman driver was taken to Wellington Hospital in a moderate condition. Three other passengers were unhurt.

A man died and a woman was seriously injured on Saturday in a head-on collision between their cars on State Highway 2 at Pukehina, between Tauranga and Whakatane.

The man was Nathan James Ngawhika, 21, from Paengaroa. The woman, in her early 20s, was flown to Tauranga Hospital.

Both were the sole occupants of their vehicles, said Sergeant Chris Summerville of Tauranga.

A cyclist died in Dunedin on Saturday when a car hit him on an intersection shortly before 4am. Anthony Daly, 35, died at the scene.

Police have charged a 15-year-old boy with careless use of a motor vehicle causing death.

About 2.30am on Saturday, a woman passenger, Maia Jacqueline Michelle Teese, 17, died after a car crashed into a tidal drain at Ruawai in Northland. Two others were taken to hospital.

Also on Saturday morning, a 25-year-old man died when a car and truck collided at a roundabout in Enderley, Hamilton.

Police said last night that his name had not been made public because his next of kin in the Far North were still being notified.

- STAFF REPORTER, NZPA