26 Apr 2015

Six dead in crashes since Friday night

5:55 pm on 26 April 2015

It has been a bad weekend on the roads, with six people killed in five separate crashes since 9pm on Friday.

Wellington Free Ambulance.

Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson

This is the first weekend on which a public holiday will be Mondayised, meaning businesses will be closed tomorrow, effectively making it a long weekend.

Assistant police commissioner Dave Cliff says it was a new situation for the police, as they had not historically counted Anzac Day as an official holiday weekend.

He said six deaths in a day and a half was a very high number.

"Initial observations from our staff who've attended those crashes suggest that alcohol and speed were involved in many of them, we've seen three pedestrians killed which is very unusual."

Mr Cliff said for every person who died there would be about eight people who were seriously injured.

New Plymouth crash victims named

Police have named the victims of a car crash in which a pedestrian and the driver were killed in Frankley Road, New Plymouth, yesterday.

The driver was Alekh Acharya, 22, who was a Nepalese national who had lived in New Zealand for some years.

The pedestrian was Ronald Millman, 67, of New Plymouth. Police said a scene examination suggested speed was a factor in the crash.

In Bay of Plenty, one person is dead as a result of a single-vehicle crash on State Highway 30 near Whakatane shortly after 9am yesterday.

Also yesterday, a man was found dead in a car at about 7am after what was believed to be a solo vehicle crash in Rotorua, and a woman's body was found at about 3am after a suspected hit-and-run on the Waikato Expressway.

In the latest accident one person died as a result of a single-vehicle crash on State Highway 30 near Whakatane shortly after 9pm yesterday.

  • Rotorua crash victim identified
  • Loud bang before body found - police
  • Police suspect hit-and-run in Waikato