The recent conviction of two Auckland cabbies for working excessive hours should be a lesson to others, the New Zealand Transport Authority says.

A 10-year-old boy says he would have died without the brave actions of an off-duty police officer who pulled him from a burning wreck.

The deaths of four people in house fires across the country in the past five days could have been prevented, the Fire Service says.

A driver was trapped today after heavy winds blew a large tree branch on to his truck.

A man is dead following a house fire in the south Auckland suburb of Papatoetoe today, and a firefighter was treated in hospital for burns to his hands.

The grandmother of a man killed after a police pursuit says the police are putting lives at risk by continuing with chases.

A gathering ended with near-tragedy when a vehicle ploughed into a crowd on a remote rural road outside re-elected Manawatu district mayor Ian McKelvie's property.

Two men who died after their vehicle crashed into a tree in Te Puke this morning were fleeing from police.