The father of a young British backpacker who plunged to her death during a quad bike tour at Waitomo is pleased New Zealand tourism operators will be audited.

Three teenagers have been seriously injured after an explosion was sparked when a cigarette was lit while they were inhaling butane gas in a South Auckland house.

A teenager who died in an early morning crash on Monday was one of two siblings in the car - and his mother had to break the news to his brother in hospital.

Former Formula One champion Michael Schumacher has left a Swiss hospital and will continue his treatment at home.

Two bloodied and panicked teenagers stumbled from a car wreck moments after a crash killed their 14-year-old mate, pleading, "Please help, please help."

A 14-year-old boy who died when a car crashed into a power pole on Te Atatu Peninsula this morning, injuring two 16-year-olds, has been named.

One person is dead after a vehicle rolled in Waikato this morning.

A prominent real estate developer and his wife were aboard an unresponsive private plane which crashed off the east coast of Jamaica on Friday.

A deer hunter has been hospitalised after his quad bike rolled and crushed him in remote forest overnight.

The worst-hit victim of the Eden Park fireworks debacle is now too scared to watch games live and is suffering "mental stress".

New Zealanders are safety conscious when it comes to seatbelts, a recent survey shows.

Two abandoned Christchurch houses have been seriously damaged in suspicious fires early today.

An elderly Tauranga man has died after being pinned between a car and a wall at his Greerton property.

A surgeon at Waikato Hospital was surprised to find a patient he was treating in the emergency department was the man he trained under nearly 20 years ago.

People with chronic health conditions cost the accident compensation system 59 per cent more than healthy people without those conditions, researchers have found.

Peter Larmer's quiet Sunday at home on his Levin farm was shattered when a car crashed through two fences and a verandah post, and came to rest upside down on his lawn.

Alzheimer's sufferer Jie Rong Luo had a habit of wandering off on her own - so when her family put her in a rest home they asked that she not be left alone outside.

A woman suffered serious injuries when her car crashed down a 30-metre bank and landed in a swamp in South Taranaki.

A 24-year-old woman has died after being hit by a car in Wellington in the early hours of this morning.

Today is a special day for a little boy who has miraculously emerged from the aftermath of a car fire that nearly took his life.

Riandri De Bruyn will never forget the night of the crash. She and her friends were at a party in Auckland's Glen Innes, at the home of a friend of Riandri's older brother, Chris.