The weekend road toll has risen to three after the death of a 16-month-old toddler who was run over by his mother on a Taranaki farm driveway yesterday.
Jackson Paul Gwerder died at the scene on Anderson Road Eltham, 56km southeast of New Plymouth, about 10.30am.
The boy's mother was heading down the driveway when another vehicle entered the property and she stopped alongside it to speak to the driver.
"While they were talking, the little boy walked in front of his mother's four-wheel-drive vehicle," Stratford Senior Sergeant Shaun Keenan told the Taranaki Daily News "When she moved off again, the tragedy occurred. It's a terrible situation.
"We've all got children and we know what the parents are now going through, obviously they are very distraught."
Mr Keenan said the driveway was quite elevated, and the mother was driving a large four-wheel-drive vehicle.
The police serious crash unit yesterday used a road cone to simulate the accident. "The road cone the crash unit used was about the same height as the little boy, and it had to be moved 3m forward of the vehicle before it could be seen from the driver's seat," he said.
"That's how easy it is for tragedies such as this to happen. All we can say is that motorists should always take extreme care when there are children around."
Police have named the woman who died after being hit by a bus in Auckland on Friday night.
Leonida Gashi, 18, was dragged nearly 400m after she tripped in front of the Metrolink bus at the intersection of Mayoral Drive and Wellesley Street about 10.20pm.
She died in Auckland Hospital about 5am Saturday and family members were considering taking her body back to Kosovo.
Ms Gashi moved to New Zealand from Albania with her parents and two elder brothers as refugees in 2000.
Northern Region NZ Bus general manager Zane Fulljames said Metrolink was fully co-operating with police.
"This is a tragic accident and our thoughts are with the family of the young woman," he said.
Police have not yet released the name of a 47-year-old man killed in a head-on motorcycle crash in Waikato yesterday.
The Te Aroha man died when a northbound bike crossed the centreline into the path of two southbound bikes near Mangakino, 34km southwest of Tokoroa.
The man's 48-year-old female passenger was injured in the crash.
