Two of the three people killed in a crash on the Desert Road on Monday have been named.
The Desert Road is a stretch of State Highway 1 in the central North Island. Photo: Dan Down Under / Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
They were Monalisa Alofaifo, who was a 20-year-old Samoan woman with New Zealand residency, and Tinkle Ansal, a 21-year-old Indian national in New Zealand on a student visa.
Police said the pair - and another person, who has not yet been named - were killed when their sedan crossed the centre line and collided with a truck about 7.30am.
The driver of the car, a 21-year-old Indian national on a working visa, remains in Waikato Hospital in a critical condition.
An investigation into the crash was ongoing, and police urged drivers to take extra care in the winter weather.
