One person has died after a car and truck collided today on State Highway Two between Waihi and Tauranga, a stretch of road that is one of the country’s deadliest.
One of the vehicles appeared to be on fire after the collision at Whakamarama between Pahoia Road and Apata Station.
Motorists are asked to avoid the area with the road expected to be closed for some time.
Diversions are in place with police and emergency services are at the scene while the Serious Crash Unit is also investigating.
The victim is the fifth person to have died on the stretch of road with another 20 people estimated to have lost their lives there between 2010 and 2017.
A third of the money will be going to Auckland.
The highway is now two generations old and is no longer fit for purpose, says Fix the Bloody Road’s Matthew Farrell.
"There are a number of people who aren’t happy for their children to be driving this road as they learn to drive, and there are a number of adults as well who are apprehensive about driving these stretches of road that aren’t really fit for purpose," Matthew Farrell of local lobby group Fix the Bloody Road told TVNZ1's Breakfast earlier this month.
"They're too narrow. They don't have an adequate shoulder, there's no median barrier, there are large sections with no Armco – ditches, banks, blind crests and summits, tight bends, you name it," he said.
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