Train hits girl

An 11-year-old girl died on Sunday while running to escape a freight train on a rail bridge in the Waikato town of Ngaruawahia. Senior Sergeant Dave Hall said the girl was with a group of youngsters playing on the tracks at 6pm. She heard the horn sounding and fled with a group of friends, some of whom witnessed the harrowing incident. The front of the northbound train travelling from Hamilton to Auckland hit the girl from behind, throwing her off the tracks.

Yacht founders

A couple were winched off rocks near Whangarei yesterday after their 40ft yacht ran aground after more than a day battling rough seas. The married pair – both in their 70s – were rescued by the Northland Rescue Helicopter from rocks near the mouth of the Taiharuru Estuary about 7.30am. They had been heading south from the Bay of Islands. The couple were ‘‘very fatigued and cold’’, said flight paramedic and winch operator Mark Going.

Road toll grows

One person died and two others suffered serious injuries in a crash in Northland yesterday afternoon on State Highway 12 near Paparoa, south of Dargaville. One person died in a crash on a rural South Waikato road near Mangakino, about 4pm yesterday. Also adding to the road toll was a man who died on Friday from injuries suffered in a two-van collision on the outskirts of Christchurch on Thursday afternoon. And a man involved in a two-car crash on SH1 south of Temuka, South Canterbury, on March 8, died on Saturday.

Bishop resigns

Christchurch’s Anglican Bishop Victoria Matthews has resigned after 10 years in the role. She will leave on May 1. The decade was dominated by the debate over Christ Church Cathedral, which was badly damaged in the February 2011 earthquakes. Matthews favoured a modern replacement but a synod vote in September backed restoration.