Bike rider's death adds to growing toll in North

A Mid North man is dead after after an unexplained crash in which his Harley Davidson left a sealed road at a gentle bend.
The fatal accident happened just after 2pm yesterday on Otiria Rd, 2km west of Moerewa.
Senior Constable Jim Hawthorn, of the police Serious Crash Unit, said the 29-year-old motorcyclist  went off the edge of the road into trees and died at the scene.
The was nothing to suggest the man was speeding in the 100km/h zone and the bike appeared to be in good condition.
The motorcycle has been sent to Vehicle Testing New Zealand for a thorough examination. The death has been referred to the coroner.
Further south, a driver sustained moderate leg injuries when his tanker and trailer rolled in Whangarei later the same afternoon. Whangarei police Sergeant Neil Pennington said no other vehicles were involved in the truck accident on the corner of Kioreroa Rd and the driveway to Toll United's depot.
It appeared the rig, being road tested by a mechanic at the time, rolled after the wheels went too far onto the shoulder, he said,
Mr Pennington said neither speed nor alcohol were involved. H e added that tyre tracks on the road showed vehicles often swung closer to the shoulder on the bend near the entrance which could indicate a road design problem.
A logging truck also rolled near the Poroti Tavern yesterday morning but no details  were available at edition time.
Yesterday's fatal crash brings Northland's road toll to 21 for the year to date, compared to 16 at the same time last year.
Whangarei-Kaipara road safety co-ordinator Gillian Archer said the high toll so far this year in Northland - after years of slow but steady decline - was "really tragic".
This year's fatal crashes had been caused by "the usual things", including not wearing safety belts, excessive speed, not slowing down in wet conditions, fatigue and distraction.
Alcohol featured highly in Northland's fatal crash statistics, but the region's single biggest cause of crashes - affecting all ages of drivers and all types of vehicles - was losing control on bends. Many accidents came down to individuals' poor decision-making, Ms Archer said.
"There's a section of the community that believes nothing will happen to them, or that they know better than the experts."
Northland was not the only area where the toll was climbing - in Auckland, for example, 51 people had died on the roads so far this year, as many as in all 2008.