KEY POINTS:
Two people are dead including a boy after the horse he was riding bolted from sand dunes into the path of a car on State Highway 35 near Opotiki.
The boy, who witnesses said was aged between 10 and 13, is understood to have been riding the horse on sand dunes alongside the highway when it sprang out on to the road near the intersection with Beach Rd about 3.15pm.
The east-bound car, with two women in the front and a toddler in the rear, hit the horse and ended up on the wrong side of the road.
The female passenger is understood to have died at the scene from head injuries as emergency services fought to cut her from the wreck. The horse was found injured in a nearby paddock and was put down by police.
A witness said mourners of both the young boy and the woman gathered at the scene soon after the crash.
The TrustPower TECT rescue helicopter was called from Tauranga but pilot Liam Brettkelly said no one was taken from the scene because the injured people had died.
However, the advanced paramedic from St John Ambulance who was on board was able to help medics at the scene.
Neither the woman driving the car nor the toddler was injured.
The crash left the holiday road toll at 15 last night despite police efforts to reinforce safety messages.
Nine people died last year during the holiday period, which began at 4pm on Christmas Eve and ended at 6am today.
Acting national road policing manager Inspector Carey Griffiths said it was too early to say what factors caused the Opotiki crash but it did appeared not to be "your typical crash".
However, many other crashes had been caused by excess speed or alcohol, or a combination of both.
Mr Griffiths said that while police were disappointed this year's holiday road toll was higher than last year's, the number of deaths was not the only thing to be concerned about.
"It's always disappointing. It's lives lost," he said of the tally last night.
"Often everybody gets carried away looking at numbers but at the end of the day that's 15 families that are going to be grieving the loss of a loved one.
"We're just looking at fatalities [but] there's a lot of people that get seriously injured with permanent injuries that affect their lives - for the rest of their lives - as well, so death is just part of the cost of foolish driving."
Mr Griffiths advised drivers not to drink and drive, always wear seatbelts, not to speed, and to take a break if they were feeling tired.
