A mid-air plane crash that killed two women in Manawatu was caused when the wing of one light aircraft was clipped by the tyre of the other, an interim report has found.

Two cars collided tonight on State Highway 1 on the southern side of the Brynderwyn Hill south of Whangarei.

Western Australian police are investigating the death of a man after he fell from a cruise ship bound for Noumea.

Police are calling on motorists to take extra care over the holiday period, following a weekend that saw two people killed, several seriously injured, and two others rescued from a car hanging in a tree.

Two people were seriously injured when a car rolled on Masters Road in Waiuku last night. Three fire appliances attended the crash.

A young farm worker was killed when the car she was driving crashed through a guard rail on a bridge and plunged into a river.

Heroes were lauded but no one was ever held to account for the deadly carnage that ensued when the Wellington-to-Auckland overnight express plunged into the Whangaehu River 60 years ago.

A man aged in his 20s was killed by a falling tree while working on a forestry block in rural Horowhenua this morning.

Rescuers are struggling to reach a vehicle stuck underwater and believed to have a person inside in the Hunterville area.

The family of a woman who died in a crash on the West Coast on Monday don't know how to tell her youngest children their mum won't be coming home for Christmas.

A toddler involved in a crash which killed his mother and brother yesterday could also have been killed, had it not been for the heroic actions of members of the public, police say.

A young Tongan family who moved to the West Coast for the promise of a better life have been torn apart just days before Christmas.

A 4-year-old boy has died after being hit by a light truck in rural South Auckland last night.

An experienced helicopter pilot is feared to have died in a crash yesterday near the Lake Te Anau starting point of the Milford Track.

A bar manager leapt for his life as a speeding car smashed into the spot where he had been standing outside a bar early yesterday.

A 65-year-old man has died after a tractor accident on the West Coast today.

The man killed in an early morning crash near Te Poi in Waikato on Wednesday was Grant Scott Gilmer of Tauranga, police say.

Fences capable of holding 2500 tonnes of rock will be installed at the Diana Falls slip next year where two Canadian tourists were swept to their deaths.

Judge Jane Farish was doubtless on the mark when she said yesterday that the likelihood of a prosecution of Peter Whittall was "extremely low" and the case may never have reached trial.

The husband of a woman who died when their car plunged into a creek fought to control the car as she became unresponsive at the wheel moments before the fatal crash.

Forensic scientists have made "some progress" towards identifying the object which struck and killed motorist Rutger Hale near Lake Hawea seven weeks ago, police say.