Fourteen people have died on the roads since Friday morning in what the police are calling a sickening weekend.
At about 7.30pm on Sunday one driver died in a crash involving three cars on State Highway 16 in Whenuapai in west Auckland.
At around the same time a woman died after a head on collision in Meremere in the Waikato.
The tally began with the death of a Chinese student in Taihape late Friday morning.
That afternoon the driver of a black chrysler, Peter Pie, 42, died when his vehicle collided with a van head-on after shunting a third vehicle off the road north of Taupo.
Four of the van's passengers died.
A person died in a crash on State Highway 1 near Mangawhai, north of Auckland on Sunday morning.
In the early hours of Saturday morning, a driver died instantly when he lost control of his station wagon and crashed into a power pole at Taupaki in Waitemata.
Later on Saturday a person died in a crash on Albany Hill north of Auckland, another was killed when a car hit a tree in the Auckland suburb of New Lynn and a third person died when a car hit a power pole near Ohakea, in Manawatu.
In Nelson, a 73-year-old man was killed when two cars collided about 6pm on Friday. Several other people were taken to hospital.
National road policing manager Paula Rose says speed has been a factor in some of the crashes, with drivers going faster than the posted speed limit, or too fast for the conditions.
She says it's tragic enough when there are just one or two deaths during a regular weekend, so to have so many fatalities is horrifying.
Ms Rose says at least two of the fatal accidents have involved more than one car, which is unusual.
