Thu, 24 Dec 2009 6:31p.m.
The accidents all happened within hours of each other and all in the North Island
By Liz Puranam
It has been a shocking Christmas Eve on New Zealand roads with four people dead in three separate accidents.
The accidents all happened within hours of each other and all in the North Island.
They also occurred before the holiday road toll period began at 4pm this afternoon.
The first of the deaths involved two men who were killed when their four-wheel drive flipped several times before hitting a power pole near Tikitiki on the East Cape this morning.
It is a worrying start to the holiday season.
Emergency Services converged on the Napier-Hastings expressway at the scene of the second fatal accident around lunchtime.
One man died after two vehicles collided almost head on.
Police say one of the vehicles crossed the centre line.
In the Waikato, a man in his fifties died after his car left the road and crashed into a bank.
“Passersby tried to free the man from the car, but couldn't,” Huntly Police Sgt Brad Wallace said.
So many deaths on Christmas Eve even before the official holiday road toll period began had police alarmed.
This is a particularly bad start to the season, considering the toll period only started at 4 pm.
Last Christmas eve, there had only been one fatal crash by then, but by the end of the holidays, January 5, the road toll was 25.
3 News
