Students at the St Kentigern College after-ball party were treated by paramedics after becoming ill from drinking large quantities of Red Bull.

The driver of a car that smashed into a house left behind dead and dying friends to escape with those he was racing against just seconds before.

Shayne Sime was issued a gun licence just two years before he turned his weapons on Christchurch police.

A bomb that forced the evacuation of more than 100 people from their homes sat in its owner's underwear drawer for three years before he decided to get rid of it.

Barely a day after the end of a Queen's Birthday weekend with the lowest road toll in 54 years, two people - one a 3-year-old boy - died in separate crashes.

A child has been killed in a bus crash near the Northland town of Kaeo and another person has died after a crash in Canterbury late today.

A holiday weekend crackdown on speeding may be extended across the year after a big drop in accidents, with one fatality so far.

Five police officers have been charged with drink-driving in the past 12 months - including a senior constable working in an Auckland serious crash unit.

A school mini-van driver remains in hospital after being injured in an accident on a wet road in the Waikato today.

Flood waters in Canterbury and Otago have begun to recede as heavy rain eases, but there's no respite with snow forecast for tonight.