Crashes kill eight in 24 hours

An accident outside the Anglesea Hotel in Hamilton which killed a pedestrian is the latest in a spate of road accidents that left eight dead across the North Island over the weekend.

The road toll for the year climbed to 75 - three higher than the tally from this time last year - after smashes in Otorohanga, Otaki, Te Horo, Raglan, Thames and Warkworth.

A female passenger was killed and the drivers of two cars seriously injured when the cars collided about 12.30am near Warkworth early today.

A serious accident also caused a two-hour traffic jam on the Auckland Harbour Bridge last night.

Following the Auckland crash, a 20-year-old man is being treated for moderate injuries after his vehicle hit the median barrier on the southern approach to the bridge about 6.20pm. Fire services took 45 minutes to cut the driver from the car and traffic was backed up for more than 10km. The motorway was fully re-openedat 8.35pm.

Only an hour later a man died when his car left the road on State Highway 16 near Rewiti, north-west of Auckland. He was flung from the car when it rolled.

Meanwhile, two people are dead and one injured after a three-car crash north of Otaki. State Highway 1 was closed after the accident, a head-on collision that also involved a following vehicle.

Elsewhere in the Horowhenua, two people were lucky to be alive after their car was hit by a passenger train at a crossing at Te Horo, near Waikanae yesterday morning.

A 32-year-old Otaki man, the driver of the car, was flown to Palmerston North Hospital with multiple injuries after being cut from the vehicle.

A second person, believed to be a passenger in the car, was also hospitalised with serious injuries.

In a freakish turn, the parents of one of the occupants was also being treated for injuries at Palmerston North Hospital after being involved in another accident on the way to the scene.

One person was killed when a vehicle rolled into a ditch at Turua, south of Thames around 6.45pm and a 23-year-old woman died after her vehicle went down a steep bank on State Highway 23 near Raglan at about 2.30pm.

On Friday night in the Otorohanga district a woman died after a single-car crash on State Highway 31. The woman was a passenger in the vehicle, which rolled as it left the road on a slight incline.

Three occupants of the vehicle, including a small child, were taken to Waikato Hospital.