Six people have been admitted to Gisborne Hospital following a two-vehicle head-on crash that closed Wainui Road for more than four hours today.
 
A 12-year-old girl is in the intensive care unit with serious injuries and is awaiting surgery this afternoon.
 
Doctors are waiting for her to stabilise before surgery,
         a hospital spokeswoman said.
 
Her two brothers, aged nine years and 21 months, and mother, 35, were also admitted.
 
The nine-year-old suffered moderate injuries and would also require surgery while the toddler was in a children's ward for observation and the mother in a general ward for observation.
 
The family was from Huntly.
 
A 13-year-old girl had also been admitted with facial injuries. It was not known which car she was in.
 
A second woman suffered multiple injuries and would require surgery.
 
The road was reopened to one-way traffic this afternoon.
 
A car and a double-cab utility wagon collided about 10.25am.
 
- NZPA