KEY POINTS:
A 14-year-old boy was killed this morning when he was hit by a truck immediately after stepping off a school bus.
It is believed the crash occurred in front of several witnesses, some of them children.
Sergeant Blair Donaldson said the Rakaumangu School student had been travelling on
a school bus towards Huntly at about 8am.
"The bus has stopped at the corner of Porritt Ave and Rotowaro Rd and the young man has gotten off to go home and get some school books," he said.
"He looked to the rear of the bus and then walked around the front of it to cross the road, straight into the path of the truck that struck him down."
Police believe the truck would have been in the boy's blind spot when he looked for traffic before stepping out.
The boy died a short time later at the scene.
The other students on the bus were from Huntly College and police said they had all been "traumatised" by the incident.
They are being offered victim support counselling.
The boy's name has not yet been released as some family members are yet to be contacted.
The road is in an 80km/h zone.
A group of about a dozen whanau have been at the site of the crash standing in a circle and saying a prayer.
Seven died
A further seven people died on the roads at the weekend.
Waikato police said speed played a factor in the three fatal crashes in that region at the weekend that claimed the lives of four people.
The first came at about 9.50pm on Friday night in Whitikahu, 20km northeast of Hamilton.
Waikato police spokesman Andrew McAlley said initial indications were that the 22-year-old male driver of a Subaru Legacy tried to take the signposted 65km/h corner too fast and lost control of his vehicle.
The driver who was not wearing a seatbelt was thrown from the vehicle and died at the scene.
A 19-year-old male passenger who was wearing a seatbelt suffered moderate injuries and was taken to Waikato Hospital by ambulance.
On Saturday night Waikato crash investigators were called to the scene of a single vehicle fatal crash on SH25A, the Kopu-Hikuai Rd, where the 23-year-old male driver of a Mazda failed to negotiate a corner and smashed into a wooden barrier on a 100km/h stretch of road about 10pm.
Mr McAlley said it appeared that during the collision part of the barrier went into the car through a window, killing the driver.
Speed was also considered a factor in a crash that claimed the lives of two people on SH26 at Hikutaia, between Kaimanawa and Maratoto roads early Sunday morning.
Serious crash unit investigators said initial indications were that the driver of a northbound Suzuki Cultus stationwagon tried to negotiate a signposted 75km/h corner too fast and lost control.
The car crossed the centreline then collided with a power pole before flying over a hedge, ending up in a paddock.
Two 18-year-old men died in the crash - both were back seat passengers and only one was wearing a seat belt, Mr McAlley said.
The Waikato serious crash unit was continuing its investigations into all the crashes.
Three people were killed in other crashes around the country, taking the road toll to seven.
Early on Saturday a 17-year-old was killed when his car crashed into a bridge after a police pursuit near Hastings.
Luke Phillip Wooster, from the Hastings suburb of Flaxmere, died at the scene of the crash. A passenger in his Honda CRX was in a stable but serious condition in Hawke's Bay Hospital's intensive care unit.
The crash occurred on Raukawa Rd, 10km southwest of Hastings, about 1.15am Saturday.
Later on Saturday a 16-year-old Westport youth was killed when his car went off a bank and crashed into a tree about 4pm.
Tayne Henry Davis, a worker in a tyre factory, died after his car left State Highway 6 at Charleston, 27km southwest of Westport, about 4pm on Saturday.
His car crashed into a tree then came to rest on the river bank. He was the sole occupant.
Senior Sergeant Geoff Scott said it was too early to say what had caused the crash, though it was raining at the time.
Police were investigating and a report was being prepared for the coroner, he said.
Yesterday a man was killed and another was in a critical condition after a car went through a stop sign in Canterbury early Sunday morning.
The dead middle-aged man was the driver of the car which went through an intersection near Prebbleton, 13km southwest of Christchurch, and hit another vehicle about 1am. The injured man was a passenger in the second vehicle.
Inspector Rob Morgan, of the road policing support unit at police national headquarters, said most of the deaths were preventable.
"Certainly, with a couple of these incidents, it can be put down to speed, and the others have a degree of inattention to them," he said.
"They are crashes, not accidents, and they are preventable."
- with NZPA
