A year after the Turangi crash that killed three US students, its most scarred survivor remains determined to return to thank those who saved her life.

The widow and mother of multi-millionaire Michael Erceg have gone to court in a dispute over the liquor tycoon's estate.

Quad bike-related claims cost the Government nearly $12 million last year and, despite extended safety campaigns, riders continue to die.

Police have named a Timaru man who was crushed to death by his car while trying to remove the oil filter.

Provincial authorities in Thailand have shut down a biomass power plant following the deaths of Michael Coppins and a Thai colleague.

A man watched his brother plunge 50m on to rocks in a paragliding accident at a west Auckland beach yesterday.

The man who crashed into and killed a TV3 staff member was two times over the legal blood alcohol limit, police allege.

A Herald analysis of Transport Agency data collected from 67 districts has revealed the deadliest parts of the country in terms of personal risk to road users.

Charlotte Christie fears driving along the winding Gisborne-to-Wairoa road after writing off her car in a pile-up on a blind bend in which another motorist lost an arm.

An 83-year-old spent weeks in hospital after she was hit by a car and was then smacked with a bill for $1800 by the driver's insurance company.

The families of two fishermen who drowned at Lake Arapuni say they may never know how their loved ones came to grief.

The trial of a man over the death of Timaru businessman Allan Hubbard in a car crash has been adjourned until July 19.

A truck and trailer rolled in Waikato overnight but the driver was not injured.

The mother of a 12-year-old boy hit by a car as he walked home from school is being chased for damages by the driver's insurance company.

Allan Hubbard died in a head-on car crash caused by his elderly wife, not by the other driver accused of careless driving causing his death, a court has been told.

A survivor of a fire that gutted a Rotorua warehouse, killing teenage girl Mihinui Tamiana, tried to run back into the inferno to save her.

Police were tonight hoping for the first-ever Queen's Birthday weekend without a single road death.

A friend of a teen killed in a Rotorua fire claims the blaze was caused by a Molotov cocktail thrown into the building as partygoers slept.

A hunter has died after falling more than 10m onto rocks from a cable bridge near Hanmer Springs.

Teenagers hospitalised by the factory fire that killed 14-year-old Mihinui Tamiana will be interviewed by police investigating how the blaze started.

Police are urging motorists to drive to the conditions after a fatality-free start to Queen's Birthday Weekend.

A fire that ripped through a factory, killing a schoolgirl, is believed to have been caused by a petrol generator bought just weeks ago by teenagers for parties there.

A motorcyclist has been blown off the road as strong winds hinder traffic in the South Island this morning.

Seven people have been injured in a three-car collision in Auckland this afternoon.

The mother of two teenage sisters killed in a Christmas Day 2011 crash near Tauranga says she has forgiven the man responsible for their deaths.

It was a messy start to the long weekend for thousands of Aucklanders yesterday when a car crash closed part of the Southern Motorway, just before the official Queen's Birthday holiday period began.