Three injured after a caravan rolled into a New Years Eve accident in Waitaki, Otago

Three people are injured after a caravan rolled into a New Year’s Eve accident in North Otago.

Emergency services were called for a vehicle accident at the intersection of State Highway 1 and Seven Mile Rd in the Waitaki district, about 11 miles north of Oamaru, just after 2 p.m.

A communications spokesperson for Southern New Zealand Fire & Emergencies (Fenz) confirmed that a caravan had rolled.

A spokeswoman for St John said three people were injured, one seriously and two moderately.

A helicopter has been dispatched to the scene and will take the seriously injured patient to Dunedin hospital, the St John spokeswoman said. The other two will be taken to the hospital by ambulance.

No one was trapped in the vehicle, Fenz’s spokesman said.

State Highway 1 is currently closed while emergency services continue to operate on site.

Nine people have died on roads across the country since Christmas Day, more than double the total toll from last year.

Terry Charleston, 34, and Rebecca McAlees, 24, were killed in an accident on Christmas night on Clevedon-Kawakawa Rd, south of Auckland.

Hours later, two young men, fellow 20-year-old Jack Heritage Jr. and Viliami Muru-Teutau, died in the early hours of Boxing Day after the vehicle they were in crashed on Triangle Rd in Massey, West Auckland.

James and Kareen Malcolm of Invercargill were killed Monday when their motorcycle collided with a milk tanker on the Riverton-Wallacetown Freeway (State Highway 99), between Taramoa Rd and Price Rd.

The eighth death was on Kahikatea Rd, Dairy Flat, on Tuesday.

And last night, one person died after an accident on Russley Rd in Christchurch near the city’s airport.