He was a little adventurer who would "body-slam" his mother to wake her up but he was too young to know the danger of playing in driveways.

Christchurch residents thought another earthquake had struck when a bus and rubbish truck collided in Burwood earlier today. Photo / Geoff Sloan

Three Gisborne teenagers died after a two-vehicle smash on one of the country's worst accident blackspots last night.

Police are investigating whether alcohol played a part in last night's two-vehicle crash on one of NZ's most notorious stretches of highway.

An Australian skydiving instructor with a fear of flying was one of those killed in one of NZ's worst aviation disasters in 17 years.

Three people are dead following a collision between a car and a ute in the Waikato tonight.

Police say the child, thought to be aged about two years, was hit by a vehicle in Otara at about 1.20pm.

A father accused of killing his son, after allegedly driving his car into the path of a train, displayed appalling driving before the "entirely preventable" incident, a jury was told today.

On a pool table at a Fox Glacier pub, a variety of drinks were arranged alongside the words "RIP Boys", as locals remembered their friends killed in Saturday's plane crash.

Members of the public found a toddler, aged 20 months, floating in a pond in Nelson's Queens Gardens this morning.

The savage bashing and stomping of a 16-yr-old in Christchurch was recorded on a mobile so the video could be put on the net, a court hears.