Police are pleading with motorists to drive safely after four deaths on the roads within 24 hours marked a ''truly horrific'' start to the holiday season.
The dead included a Chinese national who was killed, and five others injured, when a van rolled near Mt Cook on Saturday.
Emergency services were called to the crash on Mt Cook Rd, north of Twizel, about 2.10pm, and later confirmed one person with critical injuries had died.
Police yesterday named the deceased as 62-year-old Ying Han, of Shanghai, China.
Another person with serious injuries was airlifted to hospital by helicopter, while four others received minor injuries.
The Serious Crash Unit was investigating.
Three other motorists died in three separate crashes on Saturday, one on Banks Peninsula, a second near Tauranga and the third on Christchurch's Southern Motorway.
Further south, a woman suffered serious injuries after the car she was driving flipped in North Otago yesterday morning.
Emergency services were called to the crash on Hampden-Palmerston Rd (State Highway 1), just south of the Moeraki turnoff, at 8.19am.
No other vehicles were involved.
A St John spokesman confirmed the driver, who was the only person in the car, was seriously hurt and was taken by ambulance to Dunedin Hospital.
In South Otago, a person was taken to hospital with moderate injuries after a collision between a car and a tractor about 2.40pm in Lakeside Rd, near Lovells Flat.
National manager for road policing Superintendent Steve Greally said police were ''extremely saddened'' by the spate of crashes.
''This is a truly horrific start to the holiday season.
''We cannot imagine how this will impact the families of those involved at what is supposed to be a happy time of year.
''Our hearts go out to them.''
Police had already begun enforcing a lower tolerance for speeding drivers over the holiday period, by ticketing anyone travelling more than 4kmh over the limit.
With bad weather forecast for some northern regions over the next few days, Supt Greally urged drivers to slow down, pay attention, wear a seatbelt and avoid driving drunk, drugged or fatigued.
''The last thing police want to do is turn up on a loved one's doorstep in the days before Christmas and tell them someone is dead.''
