A new mum said goodbye to her 4-month-old daughter and left for work - 10 minutes later she died in a car crash.

Drivers are flouting the ban on hand-held cellphones - new figures show a phone-related car crash almost every two days, dozens of injuries and five deaths last year.

One in three road deaths are caused by speeding, young and repeat drunk drivers, according to a new report released by Transport Minister Steven Joyce.

Police are urging people to adjust their driving to wet conditions after a fatal crash this morning.

Ten people were hurt in three separate crashes on a notorious stretch of highway in just six hours yesterday.

A horror crash north of Tauranga which killed three people was "like a war zone", police say.

The Pike River mine tragedy would not have happened if NZ had maintained a mining inspector programme canned more than a decade ago, a mining expert says. He says families are right to be furious at the Govt for interfering in mine safety.

Quick-witted rescuers scrawled a line in the beach to point others to the site of a helicopter crash.