There were feral scenes outside a Dunedin courthouse as associates of a learner driver jailed on two counts of manslaughter took their anger out on the media.

A Kiwi mother managed to shield her 8-month-old baby from injury as they tumbled 10m down a ravine in Spain.

The Queen's Birthday holiday road toll stands at a minimum of three this evening, with potentially a further fatality, following a number of crashes over the weekend.

On the final day of the long weekend, motorists are being urged to prepare for their journeys home.

The woman who died after trying to do a U-turn on a Bay of Plenty road yesterday has been named.

Brent Gallagher thought he was a goner as he lay on the ground with serious injuries and a raging bull called Pistol Whip bearing down on him.

One person died and eight were injured on the roads in a chaotic start to the holiday weekend.

A toddler critically injured when he ran into the path of a car on Auckland's Mt Eden Rd had his third birthday this week in a rehab centre.

A bus passenger and a driver of a car were injured in a serious crash in East Auckland on Saturday afternoon.

Daejon Pahia was walking to school with his 8-year-old sister when a 4X4 hit him as he crossed Manuroa Rd near Takanini School on May 15.

The 9-year-old boy injured in a mysterious incident at Taradale Primary School was reportedly trying to escape from a toilet.

A 63-year-old man is in Waikato Hospital with serious head injuries after falling down a bank in Taupo last night.

New Zealand has recorded the sharpest increase in annual road deaths of a group of 28 countries in an international study.

As he lay trapped under an SUV, a cyclist critically injured in a car accident in central Auckland was asking people to lift the vehicle off him.

A scene examination at a Napier school where a young boy was seriously injured has been completed - but police are still not revealing the cause of the incident.

Emergency services assess the scene of a Delta truck, which came off McMeeking Rd, on the Otago Peninsula, and rolled yesterday.

Harman Singh says act of cradling young boy who had been hit by car helped him cope with father's death. "If he could see me right now, I think he would be proud."

More details have emerged about a boating tragedy on the Waikato River that left one man dead and his three mates clinging to trees after their runabout capsized yesterday.

A bend in a busy Auckland road with a history of crashes has claimed its fifth victim in just two days.

Two people were killed on the roads in separate incidents during the weekend.

The funeral for a 14-month-old toddler who was fatally hit by a car in Kamo last week will be held today at the Pehiaweri Marae in Whangarei.

Two weeks ago, 11 people died on the roads in one weekend. Simon Plumb looks at the impact these tragedies have had on those who remain.

Mororway traffic has ground to a halt following a crash involving two vehicles near Pokeno, south of Auckland, this afternoon.

A driver has died after crashing a vehicle into a tree, just south of Hamilton, police say.

A female in her late teens was the sole occupant of a car which left the road and crashed down a bank in the Coromandel this morning.

An unlicensed driver who killed his friend after crashing an unwarranted car during a high-speed police chase has been jailed for five years.

Several cars have slid off the road after a large diesel spill in south Auckland this morning.

The driver of a car that hit a 6-year-old boy on his way to school has given an emotional apology to the boy's family.

A 19-year-old woman driving a ute which skidded off the road and rolled into a paddock has told of the panicked minutes before she was rescued.