Three people died on the roads at the weekend, two in Waikato leaving police there in despair over a horror year on the roads.
The nationwide death toll for the year now stands at 115, still well down on the 179 deaths at the same time last year.
Seventeen-year-old Shaun Richard Nilson, of Rangiriri, was killed after a car he was a passenger in slammed into a power pole catapulting him through the windscreen Hamilton's Heaphy Terrace shortly after 1am on Saturday.
Police said the driver had been drinking and should not have been behind the wheel as he was in breach of the conditions of his graduate licence.
Waikato District road policing manager Inspector Leo Tooman said it appeared to be another case where alcohol and speed were involved.
A 33-year-old Hamilton woman was killed when her southbound car collided with a car yesterday afternoon.
Two men in the other car were seriously injured, one suffering leg and the other chest injuries.
Mr Tooman said initial indications were that the woman had failed to negotiate a sign-posted 65kmh corner and crossed into the path of the oncoming car.
Emergency services that attended the crash had only just cleared the scene after a motorcycle rider suffered serious injuries when he failed to take a bend and collided with a signpost.
The risks posed by inexperienced drivers and by people not paying attention while behind the wheel was of great concern, he said.
"This speaks volumes to us in regards to the risks posed by driver inattention, already seven people have died on Waikato roads this year as a result of drivers losing control while passing or negotiating corners."
Currently the Waikato road toll sits at 24. The next highest toll was 12, in the Bay of Plenty, he said.
Mr Tooman said it was frustrating for police to keep attending crash after crash.
"We want to get the community on side and reduce the carnage."
A passenger was killed when the Mercedes he was in collided with a truck and trailer unit, on the Moutere Highway near Nelson, about 3.40pm yesterday.
The man died in Nelson Hospital overnight, Nelson police said.
The driver of the vehicle was flown to Wellington Hospital and this morning he was in a critical condition in the intensive care unit.
The crash happened at the intersection with Golden Hills Road and Waimea West Road. The truck was travelling south on the highway, heading into Golden Hills Road, when the car, a late model Mercedes Benz, failed to give way, police said.
The driver of the truck was shaken but not injured in the incident.
Police said the dead man was a local in his late 30s.
Police are asking witnesses to the accident, as well as anyone who saw the Mercedes driving on the Moutere Highway before the accident, to contact them.
