Toddler dies after being run over by car

A two-year-old girl is dead after being run over by a car reversing out of a driveway in a horror day marred by four other fatal accidents around the country.

The girl's immediate family were with her at a mortuary last night, while extended family and friends gathered at the site of her death, in Brigham Creek Rd in Waitakere. Police were interviewing the driver of a car.

While police said they did not believe the girl lived at the address where she was killed, neighbours said she often visited the property.

Three of yesterday's fatalities were on roads while another involved a Mt Wellington man who was crushed to death in Manukau when the tractor he was driving rolled over on uneven ground.

The deaths, ironically, came on the same day as National pledged it would boost the number of police officers dealing with serious crime by moving resources away from traffic policing.

The 64-year-old Mt Wellington man, who was working in Flat Bush, died before emergency services arrived around 9.30am.

And in Cambridge at about 4.40pm a 4WD vehicle towing a trailer rolled after a collision with another vehicle. The driver of the 4WD died at the scene, and several passengers were taken to Waikato Hospital with serious to moderate injuries. Police said the two occupants of the other vehicle were shaken but unharmed.

Also yesterday afternoon, one man died on SH1 near Ngaruawahia when his vehicle left the road and went through a fence. The other occupant of the car, also male, was taken to hospital.

In Canterbury, one person died in a crash in Rangiora, north of Christchurch. In the day's other serious crash a man was airlifted to hospital with moderate injuries after his car went off the road on SH6 near Spooner Saddle in Tasman.

Meanwhile, Police Minister George Hawkins said the only thing National was pledging to do by taking police off roads was to return New Zealand to the "bloody carnage" of pre-1999 road tolls.

Police should be applauded for lower rates of crime, greater percentages of crimes being solved and safer roads, he said.

Land Transport New Zealand chief executive Wayne Donnelly said any change in resources would have a dramatic impact as road safety enforcement was an important part of the safety programme.

- Additional reporting by Adrienne Kohler

- Herald on Sunday