Crash on SH2 Katikati. Photo / George Novak
Police are pleading with motorists to take care after at least seven people died in a deadly weekend on the country's roads.
Five lethal crashes on Saturday and yesterday brought this year's road toll to at least 303, compared with 271 at the same time last year.
The weekend's toll was higher even than for the three days at Labour Weekend - and included one crash described by rescuers as "the most horrific" they had attended in recent times.
In the latest fatal accident, about 5.30pm yesterday near Carterton, a man was flung from a car and died despite paramedics' best efforts.
In the Bay of Plenty, one person died and four others were injured - one seriously - in a three-car crash on State Highway 2 near Katikati about 3.30pm.
Two people were trapped and it took firefighters an hour to free the driver from the wreckage. The other two cars were approximately 20 metres further down the road.
All four of the injured were from Auckland.
Earlier in the day, about 9.30am, one person died and two were seriously hurt north of Kaitaia when a four-wheel-drive ute went 150m off the road and crashed into a paddock.
Just hours before that, a member of the public found the body of a 19-year-old Briton who had been flung from his car near Mangakino.
At 2pm on Saturday, near Taupo, two men and a woman in their early 20s - all from Manawatu - died when their southbound car crossed the centre line and hit a truck.
The collision - on a stretch of road with a temporary 30km/h limit after two other crashes there in the slippery conditions - left the red Toyota unrecognisable and crushed beneath the front of the truck.
Rescuers said the crash, on State Highway 1 at Atiamuri about 2pm, was "horrific".
Fire Service executive Hamish Smith said the woman was still alive when crews arrived, but died as they tried to free her from the wreck.
"It would be one of the more horrific and serious accidents that the staff would have dealt with in the last 12 months."
The crash, and others throughout the country, were a bleak reminder for motorists to take care, especially so close to Christmas, Taupo road policing manager Sergeant Murray Hamilton.
"[The weekend toll] is worse than even a long weekend and we are only just starting to get into the Christmas traffic flow. The biggest message is to drive to the conditions, especially at the moment with all the wild weather we are having, and drive to the speed limit.
"A lot of people are driving at the moment and we want everyone to get there safely for Christmas."
The official Transport Agency road toll was 296 deaths on Friday, compared with 271 at the same time last year.
A spokeswoman said the weekend's fatalities had not been officially recorded, but if there were only the seven reported deaths, the toll would come to 303.
Road safety campaigner Clive Matthew-Wilson said the deaths - especially near Taupo - were unnecessary and could have been prevented. He was "sickened" after viewing the mangled wreckage.
"The road in question was wide and even, making median barrier installation straightforward. Yet, there was no median barrier and now there are three more dead people."
The toll could have been even worse after seven people were hospitalised from a two-car collision on the Napier-Taupo Highway yesterday morning. None were reported to be seriously injured, but they were taken to Hawke's Bay Hospital mainly for observation.
- additional reporting: Bay of Plenty Times