New Zealand speeding towards a record road toll

Conditions, speed, and cars crossing the centre line are possible factors for the accidents in the past week. Photo / File

New Zealand is headed towards a record high number of deaths on the roads this year, with the past week leaving five dead and more than a dozen injured.

The five deaths were caused by three different crashes between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning.

On Sunday night the road toll stood at 323. Just five more deaths and the toll would match last year's 328 - the highest it's been since 2010, when 375 died on our roads.

Police superintendent Steve Greally said on Saturday the deadly lineup of crashes over the weekend followed a "disastrous" month on our roads.

"It really is getting catastrophic ... it's now a battle zone on our roads," he said.

"It's just so sudden. It's so hard for those families to deal with."

The numbers were concerning, Greally said, as we headed into summer when more people would be out socialising.

"I don't know why the public is not feeling more outraged ... because if [the road toll] was the homicide rate we would have a lot more to say".

Two Warkworth locals and a woman visiting from Germany were killed when a vehicle crossed the centre line and collided with a truck south of Whangarei on Thursday morning.

Police have named the victims as 22-year-old Melissa Pauler from Germany, Fiona Elizabeth Cocker [nee Anderson], 52, and 54-year-old Kevin Andrew Cocker of Tomarata.

The Serious Crash Unit was continuing to investigate the crash.

A female died when her southbound car crossed the centre line on SH1 near the Towai Tavern in Northland and collided with two other vehicles.

Two men and two women from the northbound vehicles also suffered moderate injuries.

And another person died in a two-car crash involving a long-haul PBT Group truck and a van on State Highway 65 in the South Island's Buller District on Friday night.

Two other people - a man and a woman - were rushed to hospital as a result of the crash.

On Friday, one person died and four others suffered injuries after a three-vehicle crash in South Canterbury just after 4pm. The accident happened on Waimate Highway, State Highway 1, near Morven.

Shortly before midnight on Friday two more people were killed when their car hit a tree in West Auckland.

And three pedestrians were killed by trains in two separate incidents on Friday.

A person was killed by a train in Hornby, near Christchurch, around 9.30pm.

And two pedestrians were killed on a level crossing in Papakura at the Boundary Rd railway crossing shortly before midnight.

They were struck by a southbound train travelling from Papakura to Pukekohe.

Police said the incident had been referred to the coroner.