Fatal motorcycle and truck crash closes Totara St in Mount Maunganui

A motorcyclist has died after a truck and motorcycle collided in Mount Maunganui.

A witness told Sun Live the motorcyclist looked "as if they are crushed under the front of the truck".

The incident has closed Totara St and police say the road is expected to be closed for some time as the Serious Crash Unit investigates.

Police have confirmed the motorcyclist died at the scene, between State Highway 2 (Hewletts Rd) and Waimarie St.

Sun Live reports that a witness said it happened outside the Seeka produce store and the shipping container yard on the road.

Police were called to the crash about 9.30am.

Traffic is being diverted at the intersections of Totara St and Hull Rd, and Totara St and Hewletts Rd.

The motorcyclist's death brings the road toll to 112 to date this year.

At the same time last year, 95 people had been killed on New Zealand roads.

Yesterday, the sole occupant of a car that crashed on SH5, near the Waikato settlement of Tirau died.

That incident was the second fatal crash in the Waikato in two days.

On Thursday, Karapiro man Gregory William Brown, 43, died when the ute he was driving collided with a truck on Tirau Rd, Karapiro, just before 4.30am.

One person was also killed after a two-car crash in Botany, east Auckland on Thursday afternoon.

Yvarn Manaia Te Pania, 24, and James Alexander Hamiora, 26, died on Monday after the Subaru they were in crashed with a people-mover driven by an American tourist on SH10 in Northland.

That crash also left another person with serious injuries and two others had broken bones.