A 2-year-old boy has been flown to hospital with head injuries after plunging two metres from a bridge near a remote cafe in Golden Bay.

The wife of a Tahunanui man was present as he crashed after strong gusts lifted him off the ground this afternoon.

A six-year-old has permanent vision loss after being shot in the eye with a toy gun.

The bodies of five seaman and the 20 survivors from the sinking of a Korean fishing boat in the Southern Ocean arrived in Bluff last night.

Payouts will be made to the contracting companies that employed the men who died in the massive explosions at the Pike River coal mine, receivers announced today.

One of NZ's most experienced road policing officers has resigned, saying the job is taking too great a toll on his health.

A senior policewoman was seriously hurt in a head-on smash yesterday.

A senior Western Bay of Plenty police officer has been seriously hurt in a horror smash north of Te Puke this morning and a motorcyclist has died following a crash at Mount Maunganui yesterday.

The Coronial Inquest into the deaths of 29 men in the Pike River Coal mine will be held early next year, the chief coroner Judge MacLean says.

The Government is to allow private insurers to compete with the Accident Compensation Corporation.

Police have charged the 18-year-old driver of a van involved in a fatal crash near Rotorua in July.

A field hospital has been set up in the heart of London's financial district to treat blind-drunk corporate revellers.

The festive season is a time of excess. But as the country’s top traffic officer Paula Rose tells Alan Perrott, there is little cheer in counting its cost.