The teenage son of a Rotorua woman whose death in a car crash prompted a national campaign against texting and driving says more needs to be done to stop distraction behind the wheel.

The driver of a Fonterra milk tanker that ended up in a ditch at an intersection outside Kaitaia on Sunday morning is to be charged with careless driving.

New Zealand police will inform Kenyan authorities that the driver of a minivan that crashed killing four people was an 18-year-old Kiwi, not a local man.

A normal start to the school year is expected at Tauranga's Bethlehem College today.

Motorists heading out of the city are being urged to be patient following a four-car crash on Auckland's northern motorway.

A driver died when his vehicle plunged 60 metres down a bank in northern Hawkes Bay, and another motorist had a lucky escape when he jumped out of his truck only minutes before it was destroyed by flames yesterday.

The ten children of a couple killed in a mini-van accident in Kenya on January 15 have paid tribute to their parents at a funeral service at Bethlehem College this morning.

Police have reopened State Highway 7 following a crash shortly before 1pm yesterday in which a motorcyclist heading to the annual Woodstock Rally near Hokitika was killed.

More than 2,000 people are expected to attend a funeral in Tauranga this morning for the husband and wife who died in a road crash in Kenya.

A truck driver was unaware his moving trailer had been engulfed in flames until he heard a loud explosion and looked in his rear-view mirror.

A teenager was found dead after being flung from a Mercedes Benz when it crashed off Te Mata Peak in Hawke's Bay yesterday morning.

Eight people were taken to hospital after a stolen car crashed into another vehicle containing six people near where a police patrol had stopped to speak to a cyclist.

The first members of a Tauranga school group are due home from Kenya today as funeral preparations continue for three of their colleagues killed on the trip.

Two children and their parents are in hospital after a horrific crash near Taupo.

A courier van lost control and crashed into a barrier on a Hutt Valley motorway this morning.

A car seat provided by a rental company saved the life of a three-year-old Australian tourist involved in a crash in Waikato, police say.

A study for Auckland Transport has calculated the "social cost" of cycle crashes for the region's biking routes.