Five killed in weekend crashes

Five people died on the country's roads during the weekend, while another person died in hospital yesterday, three weeks after a Christchurch police chase ended in a crash.

A motorcyclist died about 8.15pm last night after crashing on Moorhouse Ave in the Christchurch suburb of Waltham, police said.

He was named as 37-year-old Christchurch man Stephen John Kinloch.

Witnesses reported him travelling the wrong way on Moorhouse Ave before he crashed near Madras Street.

He died at the scene.

Two people were killed when the car they were travelling in apparently failed to give way at a Waikato intersection, colliding with another car and throwing its occupants onto the road last night.

The crash happened at the intersection of Rolleston St and Arapuni Road in Kihikihi, 30km south of Hamilton, about 7pm.

Four people in one vehicle were thrown from the car when it rolled, with two men dying at the scene.

The two other occupants and the driver of the other car were taken to Waikato Hospital in a serious condition.

Two young Auckland men died in a crash on the Desert Road yesterday morning.

The crash between a southbound Toyota car and a northbound truck happened about 7.40am midway along the Desert Road, on the east of Tongariro National Park, in cold conditions.

Two men, aged in their 20s, were in the Toyota and both died at the scene.

The truck driver, a Palmerston North man, was unhurt.

Meanwhile, a 20-year-old Christchurch woman died in hospital yesterday, three weeks after a Christchurch police pursuit ended in a crash which killed two others.

Karleane Marie Magon was injured in the July 10 crash, after the Mitsubishi Lancer she was a passenger in sped away from a routine police stop on Manchester Street about 1am.

After pursuing the car for a few streets, police found the car smashed into a concrete pole at the intersection of Manchester St and Moorhouse Avenue.

Front seat passenger Shannon Smiler-O'Connor, 26, died at the scene, and the car's driver, Tama Regan Dobson, 27, died in hospital on July 27 after his life support was turned off.

- NZPA