A 22-year-old is charged with stealing an ambulance he had called for his friend, who had fractured his skull and vertebrae after falling 4m onto concrete.

Lying upside down with her scalp gashed open and an arm pinned under her friend's car, 15-year-old Zoe Hendriks came within minutes of not getting the help she so seriously needed.

A mother accused of murdering her baby said she felt "incapable" of looking after her children.

A CYF supervisor says an oversight meant a parental assessment was not carried out for a baby boy who was returned to his parents and allegedly drowned by his mother.

A police car and a truck collided in one of several serious incidents on North Island roads yesterday that left one person dead.

Two police officers were last night in hospital after their patrol car and a truck collided in one of several serious incidents on North Island roads yesterday that left one person dead.

A 63-year-old council contractor survived a 40m plunge down a sheer rock face from the peak of Mt Maunganui.

A North Shore 18-year-old is lucky to be alive after falling multiple storeys from a carpark building during a night of drinking and taking Ecstasy.

A businessman has told of his desperate attempts to save his badly injured wife after she drove off the road in bad weather.

The organisation behind the biggest-spending public servant says his $100 lunches were necessary.

Public servants have been told to cut back on expenses after some $875,000 was spent by chief executives between July 2008 and June 2010.

Two people have been charged with assault after a man was fatally struck by a car during a street brawl in south Auckland early this morning.

Five people were killed and two more are fighting for their lives after a string of road accidents yesterday.

Cold, icy conditions may have been a factor in a crash between a car and a truck between Waiouru and Rangipo this morning, which killed two men.

Police ordered a family from their Auckland home before breaking windows and firing tear gas inside in an effort to catch a P-addict fugitive - who remains at large.

A driver racing the wrong way down a major motorway last night smashed into six cars, leaving survivors who couldn't believe they were alive.