Three heroes have been honoured for their bravery after they jumped into a freezing stream to rescue the passengers of a submerged car near Waimate.

Police have reopened a road following a serious crash in Auckland last night.

The vehicle that allegedly fled police and ended up in a serious crash on Christchurch's Yaldhurst Road was driving a suspected drug mule from the airport.

'Luckily for me, the van was sturdy.' A Greymouth woman has recounted the moment a massive boulder crashed into the vehicle she was sitting in.

Five people are in hospital this morning after a driver fled police, rammed through an armed police roadblock, and crashed head-on with another car.

The family of slain up-and-coming rugby league star Luke Tipene are gathering for another farewell after his second cousin was killed in a car crash.

A teenager has been arrested and charged today after another teen was killed in a head-on crash.

One person has died after a crash between a car and truck near Christchurch this afternoon.

Two people are dead and two others critically and seriously injured after a cluster of car crashes in Canterbury overnight.

The parents of a baby who died after allegedly being unrestrained in a car that crashed have been charged.

The driver of a grey hatchback is being sought following a collision with a motorbike in Rotorua this morning.

A toddler who died yesterday after she was hit by a car driven by a relative in her West Auckland driveway has now been named by police.

A person has died in a crash between a car and a truck on State Highway 1 south of Whangarei.

A coroner says law changes are urgently needed to get more dangerous drivers off the road, after an inept foreign driver caused a crash killing two motorcyclists.

A man being treated for drinking petrol was killed after he jumped from an ambulance and into the path of a truck in the Hawkes Bay, police say.

Students were cold and shocked when they arrived at Thames Hospital after the bus taking them to camp on the Coromandel crashed early this morning.

A Hawke's Bay mechanic says he found two women - one unresponsive, the other trapped and covered in blood - as he rushed to the scene of a serious crash near Hastings yesterday.

A man in his 60s has died in a crash on the Northern Motorway, north of Auckland.

A woman who spent 14 hours alone with the wreckage of her car after she crashed down a bank had to set her car on fire to attract attention.

A mother who endured the Canterbury earthquakes and then lost her 12-year-old daughter in a horrific car crash will give a keynote talk about resilience later this month.

Police are investigating whether another vehicle was involved in the crash which flipped a rubbish truck, killing its driver.

One of Auckland's busiest motorways could be closed for hours after a fatal rush-hour crash. One truck driver died after the cab of the recycling or rubbish truck he was driving separated from the truck and "ended up on the opposite side" of the Southwestern motorway.

It was 5.30 in the morning when this truck crashed over a bank and became entangled in vegetation. Rescue workers are surprised the driver is still alive.

A 6-year-old boy died during a horror day on North Island roads yesterday.