A fault in an electronic communications system used by emergency services is putting the lives of frontline workers at immediate risk, a union warns.

Utah couple Tammy and Richard Barnett were on “the trip of a lifetime to New Zealand” before yesterday’s fatal crash, family say.

A family's last swim of their summer holiday nearly turned to tragedy when their 5-year-old daughter passed out in the sea.

A 20 year-old recycling truck driver who was critically injured in an accident yesterday has died this afternoon.

A motorcyclist has died after colliding with a reversing vehicle at a road works site in Meremere this morning.

A McDonald's restaurant and a chain coffee shop have become temporary ambulance stations in Auckland in a bid to respond quicker to 111 calls.

A fourth American has died after three members of his family were killed in a fatal collision with a truck in Waikato last week.

A truck driver involved in a crash that killed three members of a American family and critically injured another is receiving counselling.

The US family killed in logging truck crash on Tuesday had come to New Zealand to help 20-year-old daughter settle into her new home.

'There were people sitting on their roofs, doors open and wandering around.' Northwestern motorway drivers weren't going anywhere after a six car crash last night.

Three people who died in a collision with a logging truck in south Waikato yesterday were not believed to have been wearing seatbelts at the time.

A woman cried "everything's gone" before collapsing as her family's home went up in flames yesterday.

As 85-year-old Stewart Rundle fell more than 30m down a rocky cliff behind his beachfront home he had one thing on his mind - survival.

Horse racing trainer Steve Anderton has died in hospital after a freak accident at the family stables near Mosgiel yesterday.

The death of a baby girl in Taranaki today may have been been a tragic accident caused by a falling household object.

An 85-year-old pensioner who fell 30m from his clifftop property on to rocks had to wriggle out of his pants to reach his cellphone to raise the alarm.

Explosions and reports of fighting youths? Wellington police say they were called to Strathmore just after midnight - but found nothing.

Police are asking to speak to any witnesses of a crash that left one dead and six injured in the Western Bay of Plenty last night.

A man who crawled more than 20 metres up a road bridge arch over the Waikato River in Hamilton has been brought down safely and arrested.

An "immediate and large-scale response" has been credited with bringing a large grass fire in Marlborough under control.