A man faces a charge of driving while incapable after crashing into several parked vehicles near a busy Auckland intersection today.

Top jockey Lisa Cropp was taken to hospital after falling off a pony and becoming trapped underneath.

Hundreds of accident victims are being wrongly refused treatment on back, shoulder and knee injuries that are being mislabelled as due to "degenerative" causes, say lawyers.

The fire which has been raging for days at the Pike River Coal mine is definitely out, say Australians brought in to operate the GAG jet unit which has been pumping carbon dioxide into the mine.

Pike River Coal will have to reduce its workforce when it is ready to re-establish operations, but CEO Peter Whittall says reports of possible receivership were "extremely premature".

A woman whose car was spun across three lanes in an accident on the Southern Motorway has been refused accident compensation for her back injury on the grounds that her spinal problem is "degenerative".

Police cannot stop chasing offenders or the practice of driving off will become more common, the Police Minister says.

A traffic control worker has said a person had been hit by a bus but did not have anymore information.

An operation has begun to extinguish the fire coming from the vent shaft of the Pike River mine and cool the surrounding concrete pad, using water pumped up from a nearby creek.