Three dead on holiday roads within 24 hours

• Author: Cherie Howie
• Published date: 03 April 2021

The road toll was zero last Easter, while the country was in level 4 lockdown to stop Covid-19’s spread.

But with freedom comes a return to the risk of death and injury behind the wheel, as Kiwis make their way around the country for the four-day holiday weekend.

The first to die was a person killed in a crash involving a truck and a car just before 8pm on Thursday on State Highway 27 at Kaihere, overlooking the Hauraki Plains in Waikato.

Three other people received moderate injuries, police said.

Eighty minutes later a person died in a crash on SH2 at Mangatāwhiri, north of Hamilton.

And yesterday a person died at the scene of a two-vehicle crash near Whakamaru, about 50km north of Taupō, police said.

After the midday crash, at the intersection of SH30 and SH32, one of the vehicles caught fire.

The person who died was the driver of one of the vehicles. No one else was hurt.

An 80-year-old woman also died on Thursday after she was hit by a car in the North Shore suburb of Forrest Hill, succumbing to her injuries hours after the 8.20am incident.

Her death was not included in the Easter road toll because the official holiday period began at 4pm on Thursday and ends at 6am on Tuesday.

Other road users have escaped holiday weekend crashes with their lives, but were left with injuries.

Among them are three ambulance officers and a fourth person after a crash between an ambulance and a utility vehicle towing a boat...