A 50-year-old tourist who died after being hit by a car in Queenstown last night had gone outside to look at the stars, police said.

The father of a promising young rugby player has described how he could only tell his son to "hang on, mate" as he lay dying on a roadside early yesterday.

A motorcyclist suffered life-threatening injuries in East Auckland yesterday after colliding with a vehicle and being flipped into the path of another rider.

Hopes for the first-ever Labour Weekend without a single road fatality were dashed when a 16-year-old boy was killed in the Bay of Plenty early this morning.

A zero road toll this Labour weekend would break a 36-year record, but police say it's not just the number of fatalities they want to cut.

A fleeing driver rammed a police patrol car then crashed into the back of a roadworks truck following a dramatic pursuit involving armed police.

A taxi has smashed into a south Auckland driveway after being hit by a car travelling on the wrong side of the road.

A motorcyclist was found dead yesterday after failing to return home from a motorcycle ride late on Saturday afternoon between Glenfield in Auckland and Warkworth.

The number of fatal truck crashes has dropped over the past decade, from a peak of 81 in 2004 to 46 last year, a decrease the New Zealand Transport Agency is celebrating.

A late-model Aston Martin worth as much as $330,000 did not look so luxurious after crashing into a lamp post on Auckland's waterfront early yesterday.

There has been a second crash on the stretch of southern motorway this afternoon, where traffic is backed up from Manurewa to Manukau.

A collision between a bus and a car on Auckland's North Shore has left one person with serious injuries.

Three Boston University students who died after a car crash near Taupo would likely have survived were they wearing seatbelts, a coroner has found.

A 6-year-old girl and her 18-month-old sister were trapped helplessly for hours in the wreckage of their car, alongside their mum who would die of her injuries.

A "distraught" father searched along a Waikato road for hours, before finding his partner's car had gone over a bank, killing her and injuring their two children.

A man has been taken to hospital in serious condition after a truck crash in Manawatu.

The motorcyclist knocked from a bridge into a flooded river by an out-of-control truck is out of hospital and aware he's lucky to be alive.

The drowsy driver who caused a head-on smash that killed Timaru financier Allan Hubbard has been fined $2500.

A truck driver thought he'd killed a motorcyclist when he lost control on a Canterbury bridge this morning, sending the rider plummeting into the freezing river below.

It's four years to the day since 62-year-old cyclist Dr Graham Robinson was killed in hit-and-run, and police have launched a new appeal for help.

Expert crash investigators will go head-to-head this week, arguing in court whether a taxi driver is guilty of careless driving causing the death of his unborn baby.

Trainee journalist Zac Fleming was on his way to work at the Herald on Sunday when he almost became the latest car fatality. He tells his story.

An expectant mum who miscarried after a car crash in Auckland is furious the driver at fault escaped with what she sees as only a slap on the wrist.

A serious motorbike crash has closed State Highway One in North Canterbury this afternoon.