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Emergency services were called to a fatal accident on Far North Rd Sunday morning.
One person died after an accident involving a car and motorcycle in Northland, raising the Easter weekend highway toll to seven.
Emergency services were called for the accident about 5 miles north of Te Kao on Far North Rd / SH 1, around 11.30am on Sunday.
The motorcyclist died at the scene and the Serious Accident Unit was notified. Far North Rd is closed and motorists are advised to expect delays in the area.
The official Easter holiday period for 2021 runs from 4 p.m. on April 1 to 6 a.m. on Tuesday, April 6, and this year, the country’s death toll began Thursday when two people died in Waikato and Hauraki .
READ MORE:
* Coronavirus: Highway toll drops to record low amid Covid-19 lockdown
* Coronavirus: Second Easter weekend with zero toll
* Zero deaths on New Zealand roads during the Easter holiday period for the second time
Thursday
On Thursday, one person was killed and three others injured when a truck and car collided on State Highway 27 in Kaihere, a rural Waikato settlement overlooking the Hauraki Plains.
Police were called to that incident around 7.45pm.
Later that night, 22-year-old Kalam Safari Watkin-Mamode died after a serious accident on State Highway 2 in Waikato’s Mangatāwhiri.
Emergency services were called for the accident at 9:30 p.m.
TOM LEE / THINGS
One person was killed in an accident at the intersection of state highways 30 and 32 in Whakamaru on Friday.
Friday
On Friday, there were two deaths, one in Waikato and the other in the Bay of Plenty.
At 11 a.m., emergency services were called for an accident at the intersection of State Highway 38 and Okaro Rd in Waimangu, near Rotorua.
The crash, which involved a motorcycle and a car, left one person dead and the other injured.
Near Whakamaru of Waikato, Tauranga’s wife, Kellie Jane Greer, died after an accident at the intersection of State Highways 30 and 32.
No one else was injured.
Saturday
On Saturday night, a person died in hospital from his injuries after his car crashed into a power pole in Ōtaki, a town on the Kāpiti coast.
This was followed by a fatal accident on Wellington’s Taranaki Street, which involved a bus and a pedestrian.
Easter road toll
Last year, there were no deaths during the Easter holiday period as the country remained at lockdown alert level 4 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
This was only the second time that the Easter period had no fatalities.
New Zealand had its first recorded fatality-free Easter period on the roads in 2012.
In 2019, there were four deaths during the Easter period, six in 2018 and two in 2017.
Caroline Perry of the Brake road safety charity said every death on the road was a tragedy and every injury had consequences.
“The only acceptable number of deaths is zero,” Perry said.
