By CATHY ARONSON and PATRICK GOWER
A couple and their baby died yesterday when their car and a tourist bus collided on State Highway 3 near Otorohanga.
Two other children in the car, aged 7 and 3, were injured in the accident.
They were cut free by firefighters and flown by rescue helicopter
to Waikato Hospital where one was in a critical condition last night.
The accident happened on the corner of Kio Kio Station Rd and State Highway 3.
The intersection is known locally as an accident black spot.
The bus is believed to have been in collision with a car turning out of the side road before the crash with the couple's vehicle.
The police were still trying last night to contact next of kin.
Three Asian tourists travelling on the bus suffered minor injuries. The 25 passengers were transferred to another bus to continue their journey.
A nearby resident who saw the accident but asked not to be named said Kio Kio Station Rd did not have adequate markings or signs.
"It comes out on to a main highway but there is no white line to tell people where to stop, let alone a stop sign."
The resident said that over the past 25 years he had been first on the scene to at least five accidents. There had been many others.
He said that without proper signs more lives could be lost.
Police are investigating the crash.
The accident brought the weekend road toll to six.
A 90-year-old man died when the car he was driving left the road and hit a power pole about 11 am yesterday in the West Auckland suburb of Ranui.
He was Thomas Edward Meikle, of Ranui.
Another man died about 11 am after a car and a four-wheel-drive vehicle collided in Otakiri, 15km northeast of Kawerau. Police said the cause of the crash, at the intersection of State Highway 30 and Military Rd, was not clear.
On Saturday night, a teenager died and four people were injured when two cars collided head-on on State Highway 27 between Matamata and Waharoa.
The dead youth was Timothy Peter Madill, 16, of Matamata.
The crash closed the road for about three hours.
The four injured were taken to hospital with minor injuries.
