Two people have died in "another preventable tragedy" after a two car accident on Waimate Highway in Glenavy, north of Oamaru.
St John have confirmed two people died at the scene at 08.34am today.
Police said the crash occurred at Glenavy, reportedly between Carrolls Rd and Strangers Rd.
Mid-South Canterbury area commander, Inspector Dave Gaskin told 1 NEWS it appears the cars were travelling in opposite directions when they crashed.
"Both drivers were killed instantly at the scene."
Mr Gaskin stated it was a high speed impact crash which left "signifcant carnage."
"One of the cars has actually been split right in half. One half has headed out into a paddock about 50 metres away from the impact point."
It's the sixth and seventh fatality of the holiday road toll period that started on Friday and Mr Gaskin said the high toll is shocking.
"The worst thing about it is every crash we've had has been the fault of some person or someone."
"People making bad decisions at the wrong time. People going far to fast, been far too impatient...If we can just get people to realise what they're doing is driving a big weapon.
"I've been around a few years. I've seen just about everything you could possible see but every now and again, like today, you go there and you just are absolutely struck by the amount of damage that has been done due to the high speed involved."
"We have had a significant increase in fatal motor accidents this year. There are various reasons but speed is certainly a contributing factor to most of them."
The holiday road toll finishes at 6.00am on Wednesday, January 3rd.
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