KEY POINTS:
Two people were killed in a tragic first day of the long weekend, with multi-car crashes yesterday in Auckland and Wairarapa.
A 25-year-old Franklin man died, and two others suffered serious injuries, in a three-car crash on Kingseat Rd, south of Auckland.
Police, ambulance and fire services arrived
on the scene shortly after 10.30am and released three people trapped in the vehicles, including the deceased.
Acting Sergeant Wayne Paxton said one of the three cars had caused the accident at an intersection, but he was not sure which driver had been in the wrong.
"A little bit of speed may have been involved, the first bit of rain after some sunny days, the deceased wasn't wearing a seatbelt, and a bad patch of road," Paxton said.
The two injured were taken to Middlemore Hospital for treatment, and police closed the road for more than four hours while they investigated the scene. Paxton warned that drivers needed to be aware of the weather conditions and adjust their driving accordingly.
In the second fatal accident of the day, a 20-year-old Featherston woman died in a vehicle pile-up in Wairarapa. The crash happened on the corner of Langdale Rd and Blairlogie Rd, about 50km south of Masterton, about 12.30pm.
Masterton police Sergeant Chris Megaw said the woman was a front-seat passenger in a Subaru. It lost control going down a hill and then skidded sideways into an oncoming Toyota van carrying a Featherston family, Megaw said.
At least two other vehicles then crashed into the rear of the van. Two people in a serious condition were airlifted to hospital, and three others sustained moderate injuries.
A three year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy were strapped into the back of the van and were shaken but unhurt.
Their parents were taken to hospital in Masterton with moderate injuries.
The driver of the Subaru, a 23-year-old man from Masterton, was flown by helicopter to hospital with serious injuries.
Frank Allen, a local who drove past the scene moments after the crash, said a man from the Subaru was huddled in the gutter nearby, with a support person on each side.
"He would only have been young," he said. "They got him up, and he hobbled across the road to the ambulance."
Allen said neither vehicle appeared very badly damaged, and he was shocked to learn that a woman had died.
The van was probably returning from a children's rugby game at the clubrooms nearby, Allen said.
Police said the road was closed for almost five hours.
A number of other non-fatal crashes were reported around the country.
A two-car collision around lunchtime on State Highway 1 south of Manukau held up northbound traffic for more than an hour. One person was taken to hospital with minor injuries.
In the South Island, Dunedin police said speed and overloading were factors in a smash, which saw three people taken to hospital.
Ten people, all aged 18 to 20, were crowded into a five-seater Mitsubishi Pajero that crashed into a bank on West Otago Rd, near Balclutha, at about 4am yesterday.
In Lower Hutt, a young woman was hit by a car on High St at 7.30am yesterday and was taken to hospital with serious injuries.
