Drivers are flouting the ban on hand-held cellphones - new figures show a phone-related car crash almost every two days, dozens of injuries and five deaths last year.

A new mum said goodbye to her 4-month-old daughter and left for work - 10 minutes later she died in a car crash.

One in three road deaths are caused by speeding, young and repeat drunk drivers, according to a new report released by Transport Minister Steven Joyce.

Police are urging people to adjust their driving to wet conditions after a fatal crash this morning.

Ten people were hurt in three separate crashes on a notorious stretch of highway in just six hours yesterday.

A horror crash north of Tauranga which killed three people was "like a war zone", police say.

The Pike River mine tragedy would not have happened if NZ had maintained a mining inspector programme canned more than a decade ago, a mining expert says. He says families are right to be furious at the Govt for interfering in mine safety.

Quick-witted rescuers scrawled a line in the beach to point others to the site of a helicopter crash.

The father of a man killed in a collision has told his son's friends to remember him when they get into a car.