{"id":233973,"date":"2026-01-15T04:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T04:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/233973\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T04:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T04:14:08","slug":"rotorua-fatal-crashes-police-warning-after-3-deaths-several-people-injured","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/233973\/","title":{"rendered":"Rotorua fatal crashes: Police warning after 3 deaths, several people injured"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday afternoon, a young driver died and two passengers were seriously injured<\/a> after the car they were in crashed into a truck and caught fire on SH36 near Rotorua. <\/p>\n

Police said the silver Lexus had been reported as being driven dangerously on SH1 south from Cambridge, reaching speeds more than 80km\/h over the limit and cutting off multiple vehicles.<\/p>\n

\"BayBay of Plenty road policing manager Inspector Phil Gillbanks. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

Bay of Plenty road policing manager Inspector Phil Gillbanks said the car was linked to an aggravated robbery in Tauranga the previous day. <\/p>\n

Police deployed road spikes on Oturoa Rd and Hamurana Rd, but the Lexus later collided with a truck and burst into flames.<\/p>\n

\u201cCourageous\u201d members of the public and police used about 18 fire extinguishers to put out the blaze and save the trapped passengers, Gillbanks said. <\/p>\n

The truck driver suffered minor injuries, while several officers were treated for burns and smoke inhalation.<\/p>\n

A critical incident investigation was underway and the Independent Police Conduct Authority had been notified. <\/p>\n

Police are appealing for dashcam or CCTV footage of the Lexus sedan, registration DZS7, seen on SH1 and SH5 between 4pm and 5.30pm on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

Information can be provided online at 105.police.govt.nz or anonymously via Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last two days have seen tragedies on our Bay of Plenty roads,\u201d Gillbanks said in a statement to NZME today.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe urge motorists to drive to the conditions. With the long, hot, dry weather there has been a build-up of grime on our roads, and rainfall makes this grime slippery.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to ask motorists to abide by the speed limit, don\u2019t drive impaired, wear seatbelts, avoid distractions, and if tired pull over and rest,\u201d Gillbanks said.<\/p>\n

A heavy rain warning<\/a> is in place for Bay of Plenty and Rotorua.<\/p>\n

MetService has warned of hazardous driving conditions, with rapid rises in streams and rivers, surface flooding and slips likely.<\/p>\n

The numbers<\/p>\n

Bay of Plenty Police District (covering Taup\u014d, Rotorua, Eastern Bay and Western Bay) recorded 33 deaths in 2025, compared with 37 in 2024.<\/p>\n

There were eight deaths in the Rotorua region, eight in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, five in the Western Bay of Plenty and 12 deaths in Taup\u014d in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Tuesday afternoon, a young driver died and two passengers were seriously injured after the car they were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,5842,29422,690,15166,11784,305,42,11551,10933,101,3180,43,2682,1523,4517,384,675,20383,1327,19098,51519,13109,2069,1529,40,38,41,39,1455],"class_list":["post-233973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-calling","tag-crashes","tag-dead","tag-deaths","tag-fatal","tag-have","tag-headlines","tag-hours","tag-injured","tag-left","tag-near","tag-news","tag-others","tag-over","tag-past","tag-people","tag-police","tag-roads","tag-rotorua","tag-safe","tag-separate","tag-several","tag-stay","tag-three","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-warning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}