A woman has died after a mountain biking accident in the Waikato, taking the official Labour Weekend road toll to seven.
After yesterday's crash on Luck at Last Rd, Maungatautari, near Cambridge, the woman was airlifted to hospital, where she later died.
This death is included in the official Labour Weekend period. The death toll is now seven, compared with just one death over the corresponding period last year.
The cyclist, a 45-year-old Hamilton woman, fell from her bike on to a tar-sealed road, the Waikato-based Greenlea rescue helicopter said.
She sustained a critical head injury.
The weekend's other road crash fatalities include a person who died in a crash in Horowhenua on Sunday night, and another who died when a car rolled on State Highway 35 in Tikitiki, East Cape, on Sunday afternoon.
A man who died in a crash on the Tekapo-Twizel road on Saturday has been named as 42-year-old Che Tekapa Hogg, from Auckland.
A motorcyclist died in Upper Hutt on Friday.
Acting Superintendent Gini Welch, who is the national road policing manager, told Morning Report the volume of traffic was commonly high over long weekends, but on Friday it was "significantly higher" than it had been.
"Most of the serious and fatal crashes that happened over this weekend happened on 100km/h areas, and that is consistent with people travelling.
"It's deeply distressing, there are too many people dying and being seriously injured on our roads and this weekend has been another example of that. Sadly, it's not unusual."
Welch said she didn't believe it was directly related to the pandemic or lockdown, but people wanting to take advantage of the warmer weather.
Police will be looking to take any lessons from the crashes this year.
"We also know that most crashes happen as a result of speed, as a result of driving with distraction, impairment and a lot of people sadly are still not wearing their seatbelts," Welch said.
One of the many crashes this weekend involved at least a dozen people who were injured in a three-car smash on State Highway 5, northeast of Taupō.
The stretch of road has been described by police as one of the country's most lethal.
Those involved suffered moderate to serious injuries.
- RNZ/NZ Herald
