Two boys are in hospital with serious injuries after a police chase.

Jessica and Damon Ward today appealed for people to take five minutes to check all around their properties in case their "curious little boy" had got lost and taken shelter.

A police dive squad is again scouring the Waimata River as the search for missing four-year-old Gisborne boy Lucas Ward enters its third day.

The frantic mother of a Gisborne preschooler was last night clinging to the hope her boy is alive, more than 40 hours after he vanished.

Gisborne residents are being urged to search their properties for Lucas Ward, 4.

A truck and trailer unit carrying chemicals and general goods has rolled and blocked southland lanes on State Highway 1.

Euthanasia advocates say lawmakers need to address the issue of terminally ill people who try to take their own life.

The 18-year-old who fell from a central Auckland car parking building denies she had taken Ecstasy.

A 22-year-old is charged with stealing an ambulance he had called for his friend, who had fractured his skull and vertebrae after falling 4m onto concrete.

Lying upside down with her scalp gashed open and an arm pinned under her friend's car, 15-year-old Zoe Hendriks came within minutes of not getting the help she so seriously needed.

A CYF supervisor says an oversight meant a parental assessment was not carried out for a baby boy who was returned to his parents and allegedly drowned by his mother.

A police car and a truck collided in one of several serious incidents on North Island roads yesterday that left one person dead.

Two police officers were last night in hospital after their patrol car and a truck collided in one of several serious incidents on North Island roads yesterday that left one person dead.

A 63-year-old council contractor survived a 40m plunge down a sheer rock face from the peak of Mt Maunganui.

A North Shore 18-year-old is lucky to be alive after falling multiple storeys from a carpark building during a night of drinking and taking Ecstasy.

A businessman has told of his desperate attempts to save his badly injured wife after she drove off the road in bad weather.