A young driver who mowed down a pedestrian, killing him instantly, before speeding off narrowly avoided jail today.

An 18-year-old who pleaded guilty to a fatal hit and run in September will be sentenced later this morning.

The two tourists killed in yesterday's horror crash in Malborough had only just met and were sharing a ride, police say.

A man was perched out of the window of a moving van just moments before two charity motorcycle riders were killed in a "sickening" crash, a fellow rider says.

Police have released the names of two of the people who died yesterday during a horror weekend where six people died and more than a were dozen injured.

Greg Reynolds has seen too many young, inexperienced drivers, older drivers and those who should know better crash outside his business.

Four people have died and fifteen others injured after a series of horror crashes on the road today.

The motorcyclist killed in a fatal head-on-crash crash in the Bay of Plenty this morning has been identified as a 21-year-old farmer.

A Westport man has been airlifted to Nelson Hospital after the car he was a passenger in collided with a row of trees this morning.

Pedestrians have suffered almost a quarter of all deaths on roads around Auckland this year, fuelling a call for greater protection from vehicles at intersections.

Mourners at a tangi watched in horror as a three-year-old girl was run over by a relative in a packed marae car park.

Donations for the family of a cyclist killed outside Dunedin Hospital on Monday have reached $7500.

Kayakers faced dangerous rapids and near-freezing water to clean the Waihohonu Stream of debris spilled from a fatal truck crash earlier this month.

Superstar chef Heston Blumenthal has pulled out of a gourmet food festival in Western Australia after two of his chefs died in a Hong Kong car crash.