The deaths of Sally Summerfield, her daughter Ella and Ella's friend Abi Hone have left a "big, dark hole" in the tight-knit Sumner community, friends say.

The driver involved in a crash that killed 8-year-old Katikati girl Jasnoor Kaur has died.

A state highway was strewn with squash when a fully loaded truck and trailer unit carrying the vegetable overturned near Gisborne early this morning.

An unlicenced 16-year-old Dunedin youth is in hospital with a serious head injury after fleeing police in a high-speed pursuit.

Prime Minister John Key does not believe laws need to be tightened around tourists driving on New Zealand roads.

Two of this weekend's fatal crashes involved tourists.

A woman whose vehicle was hit head-on by another travelling the wrong way on Auckland's southern motorway on Friday morning has died.

Three people were killed when a car careered into spectators at a road rally.

Three people have been killed in a crash near Rakaia. Details of the crash were still sketchy but Ashburton Police senior sergeant Scott Banfield confirmed three people had been killed and two injured. The crash occurred at the intersection of Thompsons Track and Somerton Road shortly before 4pm Saturday.

Police and Fire Services were called at 9am today to a fuel tanker overturned at Templeton in Canterbury.

The wife of a motorcyclist killed by a driver who fell asleep at the wheel says the woman is a coward for running from the scene.

One person has died after a crash on the Coromandel Peninsula tonight — the first fatality of the Queen’s Birthday weekend holiday road toll period.

Alcohol is believed to have played a role in a head-on crash early this morning, when a woman drove 5km the wrong way on the Southern Motorway.

A boy critically injured in a Kaimai Ranges crash which killed a 9-year-old girl is set to be flown to Auckland's Starship Hospital later today.

A horror crash on Kaeo Hill has claimed the lives of two young Northland men overnight.

One person has died and two others are injured after a stolen car crashed in the Hutt Valley.

An 89-year-old woman who survived the impact of a car crash, spent 15 horrific hours trapped and injured beside her husband's body.

An elderly woman lay trapped and badly injured overnight next to her dead husband after their car left a driveway and rolled up to 30 metres down a steep bank.

Phoenix Ruddell keeps himself occupied with cartoons and smartphone apps while his little sister Faith works on her colouring-in book.

A motorcyclist has been taken to hospital with critical injuries after colliding with a car north of Auckland.

A 34-year-old Hawea man has died after the car he was driving flipped several times on Cemetery Road, Hawea Flat.

A man was trapped in his crushed vehicle about 200m down a steep bank for about three hours before he was spotted, emergency services say.

Residents of an Auckland street ran out to help two young girls who were hit by a teenage driver as they walked home from school.

A truck driver’s head was held above water for by a passer by after his vehicle slid off a bridge into the Keyburn river in Central Otago.

A massive slip near Otira closed the Arthur's Pass highway just after midday today.

A woman has been taken to hospital with head injuries after being hit by a van in central Wellington this afternoon.