Woman dies after Christmas Day crash, toll up to 16

The holiday road toll has risen to 16 with the death of a second person injured in a Christmas Day crash in Manawatu.

Police today said a female passenger from the crash had died in Palmerston North Hospital.

Yesterday they said an 83-year-old man died, after having been in Palmerston North Hospital since the car crash at the intersection of Aranui and Rongotea roads in Kauwhat, 10km northwest of Palmerston North.

The 16 road deaths so far this holiday period -- which ends at 6am on January 4 -- compare with 11 during the same period a year ago which was the lowest toll for at least 24 years.

The latest road deaths put paid to the year's target of fewer than 400 deaths -- a realistic aim before the holiday period started, when it stood at 387.

The 2005 road death toll has now reached 403. If the figure stays below 405 it will be the lowest since 1963 when 394 people died.

Yesterday police named a man killed when his car hit a tree in Port Hills Rd, in the Christchurch suburb of Hillsborough.

Glen Trevor Ayson, 21, was trapped in his car about 10.30pm on Thursday after what was described by witnesses as a high-impact crash into a "pretty sizeable" tree.

Emergency services worked for some time to free him from the wreckage but were unable to save his life.

Police have yet to name 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. They have also not yet named a middle-aged woman who was one of two people killed in a crash last Saturday morning on SH 1 in Northland, about 5km south of Kawakawa.

Thursday's road deaths included Luke William Newman, of Taihape, who died after being thrown from his motorcycle while performing "fishtail" manoeuvres on Ahipara's Tuna Tuna Beach in Kaitaia.

Raymond Phillip Mills Halliday, 43, of the Marlborough town of Seddon, also died on Thursday after his station wagon and a four-wheel drive collided.

- NZPA