A Dunedin woman was tight-lipped when she rang 111, after mistakenly gluing her lips together.

The widow of a young father killed in a hedge-trimming accident was left wondering how she was going to tell her young son that his "hero" dad wasn't coming home.

Police have named the Culverden man killed in a freak hedge trimming accident in North Canterbury earlier today.

Accidents on the mountains are costing Kiwis a mountain of money, according to latest figures by ACC.

The main highway north of Balclutha remains closed this morning after a head-on crash in which a woman was killed and another seriously injured.

One person has died and another has been airlifted to hospital with serious chest injuries following a two-car crash in Otago tonight.

A five-year-old girl has been flown to Middlemore Hospital with burn injuries after the dress she was wearing went up in flames when she came too close to a nearby gas heater.

A female wing walker and her stunt pilot were killed when their plane crashed into the ground and exploded into flames.

Broadcaster John Tamihere raced to a fatal car crash in central Auckland yesterday after hearing his wife's son was hurt.

The father of 2-year-old New Zealand triplets who died in a Qatar mall fire just over a year ago has expressed his relief at guilty verdicts in the case.

Soup, slippers, umbrellas, heaters and firewood aren't as comforting on a cold winter's day as you'd like, with all also contributing to nasty injuries, ACC warns.

The first words from a young Briton who survived a fall from the 15th floor of an Auckland city apartment block were "what an idiot".

An 11-year-old boy who ran 6km in the dark to get help for his dad after a car crash will be protected from reading a coroner's comments that praise his heroic actions.

The wreckage of a car crash that killed 18-year-old Oliver Steven Mills lay unnoticed for up to nine hours in a water-filled ditch early yesterday morning.

A young Briton who survived a fall from the 15th floor of an Auckland city apartment block is expected to make a full recovery.

A crash on Auckland's Southern Motorway has killed a man and caused chaos for commuters.

A man is fighting for his life in hospital after falling from the 15th floor of an Auckland apartment building because he had locked himself out, police say.

Kerre McIvor loves seeing kids going to school on their scooters. It looks like such fun, such a kid thing to do.

A shearing worker is thought to have severed an artery in his arm after a sheep kicked out a glass window and he cut himself.

A horrific car accident killed Richard Todd's wife and left both his daughters injured - one so severely doctors warned him she may never recover.

A two-year-old child drowned in a hole containing water on a rural property near Gore yesterday afternoon.