A motorcyclist is dead after crashing near Tauranga this afternoon.

A school principal prevented a likely fatal accident by jumping into a 29-tonne truck veering across State Highway 1 after its driver had passed out at the wheel.

After what Geoff Purcell has been through, you might think he wouldn't be heading out for any last-minute practice rides before this year's Colville Connection on the Coromandel.

'I've been sleeping.' 10-year-old cyclist Samantha Robertson is aware of how close she came to death in a crash with a car that left her in an induced coma.

Counties Manukau police have named the man killed in a head-on crash with a truck at Maungatawhiri on Monday.

A motorcyclist has been taken to hospital after colliding with a car in central Auckland.

A Wellington motorway has re-opened after a multi-vehicle crash blocked the southbound lane near Porirua.

A Wellington highway was partially closed this morning after a car skidded and crashed into a ditch.

Two motorcyclists were injured, one critically, when a large three-wheeled motorcycle crashed and rolled near Motueka overnight.

Northland police say the first significant rain in weeks is causing havoc on the roads today.

A diversion to look at the scenery turned tragic for a minivan load of tourists in Southland yesterday afternoon.

Particulates from the mystery object which killed a driver last year are now being studied by Otago University researchers after ESR tests weren't definitive.

The first officer on the scene of a crash, which police tried to blame on a truck driver for using his mobile phone, says there was never any suggestion the truckie was at fault.

Two people have been taken to hospital following a head-on collision outside Palmerston North this afternoon.

Army medics pitched in to help rescue services after a nasty head-on smash near their base outside Christchurch this afternoon.

Police have admitted a truck driver was wrongly blamed for causing a crash featured in a road safety campaign.

A driver has had what emergency workers dubbed a miraculous escape after surviving a 40-metre plunge off a bridge in his vehicle, which landed upside-down in a river.

An innocent victim who survived a crash featured in a new road safety campaign says police have misled people and unfairly blamed a truck driver involved.

A 3-year-old girl who suffered critical injuries in a Bay of Plenty road crash yesterday has been transferred to Starship Hospital.

Motorists travelling north for the long weekend should expect delays, police say.

A motorcyclist has been killed on a rural Hawke's Bay road.

A young Greymouth man says a car fleeing police would have smashed into him in his bedroom if he hadn't moved out earlier that day.

A horror highway smash has been caught on traffic video cameras and published by police in a hard-hitting new road safety campaign.

One person is dead and another seriously injured after a car fled police in Greymouth last night.