Four die in road carnage

Four people died in a night of road carnage yesterday.

Two people died after separate crashes in the lower South Island, both thought to involve single vehicles.

A third person died after a collision between a logging truck and car in Waikato, while a fourth was killed in a crash in Tauranga.

In one of the crashes, a 24-yearold woman died after her car slid across a Waikato highway centre line into the path of an oncoming truck. The crash between the car and the unladen logging truck at 4.49am on Wednesday shut down part of the highway between Tauranga and Hamilton.

It happened on a 75kmh bend on State Highway 29 north of the Piarere intersection.

The Tauranga woman was heading northeast along the highway in her white Hyundai when she appeared to have lost control coming into the bend, Sergeant Dean Kaio said.

‘‘The road was wet at the time, after a recent downpour,’’ he said at the scene.

‘‘She’s come around the sweeping right-hand bend and lost control, drifting across the centre line on to the wrong side of the road.’’

The car then slid sideways across the highway, slamming into the front of the southbound truck.

In another crash, the sole occupant of a vehicle died after crashing into a paddock about 11pm in the Clutha district, police said. Later, a man died after the vehicle he was in crashed into a bridge about 1.50am in the Waitaki district.

About 10.15pm emergency services were called to a fatal crash in Tauranga. Police said a single vehicle went into a tree and the driver died at the scene.