An elderly couple remain in a serious condition in Tauranga Hospital, following a crash in the Bay of Plenty yesterday.
The crash, which involved two vehicles, occurred about 2.15pm on State Highway 2 near Te Puna.
A man who was driving a hired car south towards Tauranga died as a result of the collision, bringing the official holiday road toll to one.
The elderly occupants of the other vehicle were taken to Tauranga Hospital, after they were cut free from their car by the fire service.
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Advertise with NZME.A Bay of Plenty District Health Board spokeswoman said a 70-year-old man remained in a critical but stable condition in the hospital's intensive care unit today.
A 74-year-old woman was also in a serious but stable condition in the intensive care unit. The couple were from Omokoroa, she said.
The official holiday road period began at 4pm on Christmas Eve, and runs until 6am on Monday, January 5.
Last year's Christmas-New Year road toll was seven, from a total of 193 reported injury crashes. But the official holiday period was three days shorter than this year.
The fatality in the Bay of Plenty came as seven people were injured after a campervan and a car crashed on the Athol Five Rivers Highway, between Queenstown and Invercargill, just after 4.15pm yesterday.
Two passengers from the car were taken to Dunedin Hospital with serious injuries, including burns.
The Southern Institute of Technology students were in a 1993 Mitsubishi station wagon.
The driver of the Mitsubishi was trapped for more than an hour in the car, which was initially in flames, before the blaze was extinguished firefighters.
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Advertise with NZME.A third passenger in the vehicle was taken to Southland Hospital.
Police said the campervan was carrying a German family of two adults and two children.
One of the children was taken to Southland Hospital for treatment, while the other occupants of the campervan were treated at the scene.
This all comes after a family of four were killed on Tuesday, following a crash between a car and a logging truck - just a day before the start of the official holiday road toll period.
The crash occurred about 1pm, after a north-bound vehicle on State Highway 1 pulled to the left-hand side of the road and attempted to complete a U-turn in front of a north-bound fully-laden logging truck, Northland road policing manager Murray Hodson said.
He said the crash was a result of driver error. Andy Li, 43, Catherine Li, 10, Xingwu Bian, 47 and Ximeng Bian, 8, all from Auckland, died as a result of the crash.
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Advertise with NZME.An eight-year-old boy - who had also been travelling in the car - was critically injured, and remained in Auckland's Starship Hospital in a stable condition.
