Motorcylist injured after colliding with horses

A motorcyclist was ferried by police launch to Auckland Hospital this morning after colliding with loose horses on Waiheke Island in the Hauraki Gulf.

Police said the man's injuries were not life threatening but he was taken to the mainland by the launch Deodar which had just delivered members of the police serious crash unit to the island to investigate a fatal crash late last night.

Two people were in a car which slid off a gravel road and into a tree.

The driver, a 56-year-old Maori man, died at the scene and his 16-year-old passenger was injured.

The name of the dead man has yet to be released.

The motorcyclist was believed to have hit at least one horse which escaped on to a road from a paddock.

- NZPA