Five killed during long weekend

 Police began a pursuit when the speeding vehicle refused to stop. While overtaking, the vehicle...
Two people are dead following a crash in Auckland. While overtaking, the vehicle hit a tree, killing two passengers and hospitalising the driver and two additional passengers. Screengrab: Sam Sword

Five people have now died in crashes on New Zealand roads over Labour Weekend.

The official road toll period finished at 6am today. The grim tally includes two people who were passengers in a car that slammed into a tree during a police chase in Auckland yesterday.

Four of weekend's five victims were women.

The toll, which police say is provisional at this stage, has risen by two compared with last October's holiday period.

The death count rose by one overnight after an elderly cyclist died in Christchurch overnight from injuries suffered in a crash in Rangiora yesterday morning.

The first motorist died in the early hours of Saturday morning in a car crash near Burnham Military Camp in Canterbury.

Christchurch woman Jaimey Leigh Fellows (32) was killed and another was badly injured when her car came off the road just after midnight on State Highway 1, south of the camp.

Later that morning a female motorcyclist died in a crash on State Highway 41 near Turangi.

Despite efforts by passing motorists, including a doctor and a nurse, she died at the scene, police said.

Two people were killed on an Auckland road in the early hours of Sunday morning after a police chase.

A 25-year-old woman and a 29-year-old man, who were passengers in the back seat, died when the car they were in hit a tree in Mt Albert about 1.10am.

The crash happened minutes after police clocked the car going about 130km/h in an 80km/h zone on the Northwestern Motorway.

Five people were in the car at the time.

The driver, a 22-year-old man, and two other men in their 20s remain in hospital with moderate to serious injuries.

An 81-year-old woman died in Christchurch Hospital overnight after coming off her bike on Cones Rd in Rangiora at 9.40am yesterday.

The accident was under investigation, said a police spokeswoman.

Last year, three people were killed on our roads over Labour Weekend. Another 94 people were injured.

The official road toll period started at 4pm on Friday and ended at 6am.

On Friday, half an hour before the official road period toll started, a driver was killed on State Highway 2, outside of Raupunga, near Wairoa. Police said she died at the scene.

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