Police have confirmed two fatalities after separate crashes in Hawke's Bay.
Police have confirmed two fatalities after separate crashes in Hawke's Bay.
Two people have died in separate crashes within 12 hours in the wider Hawke’s Bay area.
The first fatality was when two motorcycles crashed on a rural road between Dannevirke and Woodville just before 2.30pm on Thursday, and the second was a single-vehicle crash near Waiohiki about 2.20am Friday.
Policesaid Thursday’s crash happened at the intersection of Gaisford and Oringi roads, east of State Highway in the Kumeroa and Papatawa area, in the Tararua District.
One person died at the scene, a second person sustained moderate injuries, police said.
Friday morning’s crash was on Korokipo Rd (State Highway 50), closing a section between Links and Ōmarunui Rds for about four hours.
The fatalities were the first in wider Hawke’s Bay this year, in a 2026 toll that had risen to 10 nationwide by Friday morning.
But there have been four in the fortnight since Christmas Day, with a pedestrian struck by a vehicle in Napier on Boxing Day having died two days later, and a person dying in a single vehicle crash on SH2 between Tangoio and Tutira, north of Napier, on December 30.