Fifteen-year-old Brigitte Allan watched helplessly as her older sister and fellow cyclist Maggie collided with a van during a training ride, followed by four of their friends.

'I've got bruises like tyre marks up my leg," says Guy Speedy, vibrant and laughing just two days after being run over by his own tractor.

Five schoolgirl cyclists injured in a collision with a van north of Hamilton yesterday are at home recovering.

Five top schoolgirl cyclists and their coach, hurt when a car collided with them on a rural Waikato road, have now been discharged from hospital.

An elderly farmer who was run over by his own tractor is a "tough old coot" who is already back to his "cheeky self" after surgery, his family say.

A woman killed in a collision with a school bus in Taranaki yesterday was a young German national.

A photographer killed when he was struck by steam train may have thought the engine was further away because his perception had been skewed by his camera, a friend says.

It was truly miraculous that a series of accidents involving some 130 cars on a fog-shrouded bridge in Kent did not result in deaths, British police said.

As Father's Days go, Robyn Cameron cannot remember one more low-key, or more precious.

Thousands of New Zealand cars have such poor rear visibility that drivers cannot see a small child unless the kid is standing more than 10m away from the vehicle.

A man is dead after being hit by a stream train while trying to photograph it yesterday. The taken to Greymouth Base Hospital with serious head injuries after the accident.

A member of a rugby team is being hailed as a heroine after she saved the life of a man seriously injured in one of three crashes that caused chaos on State Highway 1 yesterday.

Hugh Foster faces an eight-week hospital stay after two alleged bank robbers in a stolen car smashed into the back of his ute on the Southern Motorway.

Police are at the scene of a two car crash near Hamurana on the outskirts of Rotorua where one person had to be cut free of the wreckage.

Two women are dead after separate crashes on one South Island alpine highway yesterday.

A woman is dead and five others injured after a van rolled some 30m down a bank onto train tracks in the central South Island this morning, police say.

Two people are dead after the van they were in left the road north-west of Auckland early this morning.

When you find out someone you love is hurt, the world contracts itself inwards. In that instant, the only thing that matters is the crisis unfolding before you. Nothing existed before it.

A motorist who collided with a group of Hamilton cyclists last month, killing one of them and injuring two, will meet his victims' families.

Searchers are unsure of the source of two plastic containers, found today in the hunt for the missing yacht Nina.

Two men, including a police officer, who dove into icy waters to help rescue a passenger from a Tauranga Bridge plunge have spoken about their ordeal.

A bus carrying 27 passengers rolled last night as its driver apparently tried to avoid a truck, leaving six people in hospital.