Five die on NZ roads in 24 hours

Five people have died - four of them in the South Island - after a deadly 24 hours on New Zealand roads.

Senior Sergeant Neville Highland, Canterbury acting road policing manager, said today the deaths were tragic. Three were in Canterbury.

"It's always a tragedy, but when you get three in such a short space of time you wonder why, especially when they're so totally unrelated," he said.

The North Island death happened early today when a male passenger in a stolen vehicle died when the driver crashed, within a minute of being spotted by police.

The incident would be investigated and reported to the Independent Police Conduct Authority.

A man died and five others were believed to be in hospital with serious or critical injuries following a two-car crash on the Owaka Highway in South Otago, near the Finegand freezing works.

The dead man was the sole occupant of a car involved in a collision with another vehicle carrying five people, who were believed to be in their late teens or early 20s.

A St John spokeswoman said two patients received critical injuries and three others serious injuries in the crash, which was reported about 8.50pm.

At 4.30pm a woman died when two cars collided at Prebbleton, south of Christchurch, after one of them failed to stop at an intersection.

Several people were injured , police said.

Another woman died about 4.50pm when her car rolled near Cust, 50km northwest of Christchurch.

She was Gendie Cara Roxburgh, 68, who was the driver and only occupant of a car which veered off the road and crashed.

Early yesterday race caller Darren James Tyquin, 41, died after a crash on Christchurch's northern motorway.

Mr Tyquin crashed off State Highway 1, just north of Belfast, about 12.50am, after failing to take a bend, Canterbury policing development manager Inspector John Price said.

He died at the scene. A passenger in the car was taken to Christchurch Hospital where he was treated for moderate injuries.

Preliminary investigations indicated speed was a factor in the crash, Mr Price said.

Mr Highland today said that the driver behaviour that led to the crashes were the very things that police were spending the bulk of their time enforcing.

"These are graphic examples why we do that," he said.

"If people can link these events that actually happen to what they're seeing advertised on TV then the message might get through."

But one message that police have been enforcing is still not getting through to some people - drink driving.

Mr Highland said a Christchurch booze bus operation at 4.20pm yesterday netted a mother, with her three-year-old daughter in the car, who blew 566mcg, while at 4.45pm a taxi driver heading home blew 829mcg.

The breath alcohol limit is 400 micrograms per litre of breath.

Mr Highland said it was particularly worrying given the time those drivers were caught.

"These are peak traffic hours when there are kids out on the road," he said.

- NZPA