A young Olympic snowboarding hopeful who was killed in a fiery car crash on Sunday would have celebrated his 18th birthday today.

Police have admitted they put out incorrect information about an incident where a female pedestrian was hit by a truck outside an Auckland supermarket.

A "bright and talented" teenage snowboarder killed in a fiery car crash was a contender for the Sochi Winter Olympic Games.

A motorcyclist who went over a 10-metre bank on a rural road north of Auckland has escaped the plunge with minor injuries.

A three-vehicle crash has partially closed a Northland highway this morning after a truck and trailer rolled south of Kawakawa.

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.

'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.

The driver of the truck that collided with a school bus this morning has been taken to Tauranga Hospital.

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

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 19-year-old man killed when he was hit by a car in Taranaki this morning has been named.

A 10-year-old girl was last night in a serious condition in hospital after being hit by a car while riding her bicycle on a rural road - the latest in a series of bad cycling accidents.

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.