Elderly woman dies after Waikato crash

Photo / File

A 75-year-old woman who was one of five people hurt in a two-car crash in Waikato yesterday has died.

Emergency services were called to the intersection of State Highway 26 and Hoeka Road at Newstead, south of Hamilton, about 4pm yesterday after two cars collided.

"While the crash is still under investigation by the serious crash unit, initial indications are the crash occurred when the car the woman was a passenger in turned right into the path of an oncoming utility," Superintendent Win van der Velde said.

Five people from both the vehicles were taken to Waikato Hospital with varying degrees of injuries but a 75-year-old Cambridge woman died in hospital overnight.

It was the third road fatality in Waikato in six days.

Steve Laurence Holman, 42, died when the Porsche Boxster he was driving crashed into trees in Taupiri about 5.30pm last Thursday.

Then about an hour later Thomas Blythe, 32, died when the car in which he was a passenger crossed the centre line into the path of a another car on State Highway 3 at Rukuhia.

Mr van der Velde said motorists needed to drive to survive with summer approaching.

"My team will continue with the high visibility and increased enforcement, but motorists need realise they are operating a piece of equipment that will kill, and quite often it is not the driver that dies, but a close family member or friend."