The 11-year-old Westport boy killed in a freak cycling accident on the weekend while biking with school mates died "doing what he loved'', his family said today.

A police officer risked his own life to save a person from a river after a vehicle went off a bridge near Tauranga this evening.

A Westport boy died after suffering a serious throat injury in a fall from his bicycle in Westport.

A 21-year-old Christchurch man killed while riding in a buggy yesterday afternoon may not have been wearing a seat belt.

A young man was killed when the off-road buggy he was in crashed in a dry bed of the Waimakariri River this afternoon.

A 3-year-old boy has woken from a three-week coma after suffering horrific head injuries in a fall at an Auckland playground.

One person has died after crashing their car in a ditch overnight. Police found the man, near Te Te Aroha in the Matamata-Piako district, Waikato just after midnight.

A toddler whose heart stopped after he choked on a sandwich at the home of an Auckland childcare worker should be celebrating his second birthday today.

A friend of speedwing flyer Sean Kerridge has told an inquest he believes the thrill-seeker may've felt pressure to undertake the flight that killed him.

"I could feel every bloody bump on the road," said the farmer who broke his neck in a 4m fall - then mounted his quadbike and rode home.

Two teenagers have appeared in an Auckland court charged with manslaughter over an alleged street race which caused the death of another teen.

A teenage boy was killed when he was hit by a car driven by his friends while playing a game of "possum" on a west Auckland road yesterday, says a resident.

Andy Earl, the driver accused of causing the fatal head-on car crash that killed Timaru financier Allan Hubbard, has been found guilty.

Thousadns of mourners yesterday paid homage to the 38 people who died when their bus plummeted from a flyover near Naples as they returned from a weekend away.

A 5-year-old New Zealand-born boy has been killed in a quad-bike accident in Australia.

Rescuers wielding electric saws cut through the twisted wreckage of an Italian tour bus for survivors of a crash in southern Italy that killed at least 37 people.

Taxpayers are trapped into paying compensation to a traveller who would rather be able to sue for damages over being shot in the head and left brain damaged.

A Kiwi fly-in, fly-out worker who had a conviction over a fatal road crash on one of Australia's most dangerous roads overturned says he has been "put through the wringer".

A veteran farmer and a hunter have died in separate quad bike accidents.