Five family members died when their car slammed into a tree south of Kinleith, three people died in a collision in Ashburton and one person has died after their car crashed into water near Auckland Airport.
Eight people are dead after two separate crashes this morning, including five family members who died when their car slammed into a tree south of Kinleith.
In a second horrific incident hours later three people died in a collision in Ashburton.
Five members of the same family have been confirmed dead after a car slammed into a gum tree south of Kinleith at 7.40am this morning. An 11-year-old boy survived but has serious injuries.
The Ford Falcon carrying six people crashed into a gum tree.
Police confirmed five people died in the single vehicle crash as it travelled west on Tirohanga Rd at 7.40am today.
They were all members of one family, Senior Sergeant Fane Troy confirmed. A teenager was among the dead.
Three women had died in the crash and two men, police said. They were a local family.
"Our hearts go out to the family, these are the ones this will hurt the most," Troy said.
The crash scene in Tirohanga Rd. Photo / Leah Tebbutt
Firefighters had to remove two bodies to free a sixth person from the wreckage. The sole survivor, a boy aged 11, is in Waikato Hospital with serious injuries.
The Waikato Westpac Rescue Helicopter and the Greenlea Rescue Helicopter both attended the crash.
Mum on school run discovered crash
A woman who lives near the crash scene was on her way to take her children to school when she saw the vehicle had smashed into a tree.
Police at the scene of the Tirohanga Rd crash. Photo / Stephen Parker
After seeing the wreckage she turned around and drove back to check on the occupants.
"It wasn't nice, it wasn't nice at all."
A cordon at the intersection of Tirohanga and Tram Roads. Photo / Stephen Parker
She was still in shock as to what she'd seen but said there were six people in one car, a Ford Falcon.
Conditions at the time were dry and the crash happened on a relatively straight stretch of Tirohanga Rd, she said.
The crash took pace south of Kinleith.
A woman who lives about 300 metres from the crash scene said she was waiting at the end of her driveway for the school bus with her 6-year-old son when her friend phoned to say there had been an accident.
The woman said she had noticed the traffic coming from State Highway 1 had slowed and realised the crash must have happened near her home.
"Then I heard the choppers and police come past," she said.
"The roads have been closed right outside our house."
The woman said she phoned the school to alert them of the accident and was told the bus could not get through the cordon.
"But my son still wanted to go to school so he jumped the fence and went to school in the neighbour's ute with his friend," she said.
"She can get onto the road from her driveway so they drove through their farm and out the driveway."
The woman did not believe the road was dangerous to travel.
"I wouldn't say it is a dangerous road," she said.
"We do hear car accidents out here but there hasn't been a serious one for quite a while. "But it is always a worry when it is right outside your doorstep."
Tirohanga Rd resident Jo Bell said she heard a siren just before 8am when she dropped her daughter off at the bus stop.
She used the road daily and said while she had not seen the crash, people needed to be cautious - especially in the wet.
"There are sections that are quite narrow and dangerous... it can get quite slippery," she said.
The narrow sections were hazardous with the range of vehicles that used it, including large trucks and tractors.
She said there needed to be more signage to warn people of the common slower and larger vehicles which used the roads, especially for those who did not use the road often.
There had been a second "incident" near the crash scene but a FENZ spokesman said he did not believe anyone had been injured in the second crash. Police later confirmed a stationary police car was involved in the non-injury crash.
A mother and child were killed after a crash on State Highway 1 near Kaipara at 8.50pm on Sunday. Two others, one a child, were taken to hospital in serious conditions.
Another two people were also killed in a crash in Hawera about 8.25pm on Saturday.
As of yesterday, 92 people had been killed on the country's roads so far this year, according to Ministry of Transport data.
That was less than the 104 people killed in the same period last year and about equal with 2017 when 91 people were killed in the first three months.
