By SCOTT INGLIS
Eight people - including four members of one extended family and a father and son - are dead after a horrific start to the Christmas-New Year holiday period.
All but one of the deaths occurred as a result of head-on smashes on North Island highways which also left three others seriously injured.
The eighth death - that of an eight-month-old boy - resulted from a crash yesterday near Clinton, 42km southeast of Gore, in which a vehicle hit gravel and rolled.
All the North Island fatalities happened after drivers crossed the centre line, prompting frustrated police to issue fresh safety warnings.
In the worst crash, on Christmas Eve, four relatives died and another was critically hurt after their car and a van collided in drizzle on State Highway 1, between Hamilton and Cambridge, about 11.30 am.
The dead were: Marjorie Jean Brooks, aged 49, of Auckland; and Paul Christopher Campbell, 38, his wife, Tanya Carol Elizabeth Campbell, 34, and their 4-year-old daughter, Rene Ellen Campbell, of Wavell Heights, Queensland.
Their driver was Marjorie Brooks' daughter, Janine Helen Brooks, of Auckland. Last night, she was in a critical but stable condition in Waikato Hospital.
The van driver and his passenger were seriously hurt.
The first road death of the holiday period happened on Saturday near Gisborne, when a 23-year-old driver died at the scene of a head-on crash.
He was Poverty Bay rugby rep Maurice Kerekere, of Gisborne.
The accident happened on State Highway 35 at Tatapouri at 2.10 pm. Three other people were injured.
Five hours later, another collision, in South Taranaki, resulted in the death of a 40-year-old man and his 15-year-old son. Their names were not available last night as some family members had still to be told.
Police say the father may have been tired and crossed the centre line.
Last year, 17 people died in 14 fatal crashes over the official Christmas-New Year holiday period.
The police national traffic safety chief, Superintendent Steve Fitzgerald, told the Herald that drivers needed to stay sober, slow down, show tolerance, stay alert and drive according to the road and the weather.
In Auckland early on Saturday, a 24-year-old Mt Albert electrician was seriously injured in a hit-and-run believed to involve a stolen taxi.
Matthew Bond was struck by a speeding car as he crossed Asquith Ave, Mt Albert, to his grandmother's home about 4 am.
He was thrown several metres and left in the middle of the road with spinal, rib and leg fractures.
A witness suggested that the car was a taxi, and police confirmed that one had been stolen in the area.
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