Four people have died after a horror crash in Ashburton on Friday.
Emergency services were called to the scene on Cochrane Rd and Wakanui Rd at 9:30am after a van collided with a truck.
Police said the van appears to have gone through a controlled intersection at a time when a fully laden truck was going past.
"The van had six occupants, of which four have unfortunately died," Police Area Commander Inspector David Gaskin told media.
The people in the van were a group of adults who are believed to have travelled to the area from the North Island, he said.
He said three people died at the scene while the fourth passed away after being taken to Christchurch Hospital.
One other person has critical injuries and another is in a serious condition.
The driver of the truck was not seriously hurt in the crash.
Insp Gaskin said the accident came from a "moment's carelessness" and was an "absolutely tragedy".
"Any death on our roads is too many, and crashes like these are also devastating for our staff and our local communities."
The people in the van were a group of adults who are believed to have travelled to the area from the North Island, he said.
Gerald Dolan, a resident of Wakanui Rd, told Stuff the crash was so loud his whole house vibrated and he thought a bomb had gone off on the street.
He said when he went outside to see the damage, he saw a truck had crashed into the side of a van.
“When I went out the van was clean through the power pole and the truck was stuck in the side of the van and it had pushed it about 30 metres up the road," Dolan told Stuff.
A staff member at Rural Transport Ashburton confirmed to Stuff one of the company's trucks was involved in the accident.
The crash comes after devastating flooding hit Ashburton and the Canterbury region last weekend.
Among the infrastructure damaged in the wild weather was the Ashburton bridge, which closed on Tuesday and only reopened on Thursday.
The bridge, on State Highway 1, crosses the Ashburton River and is the primary transport route for southbound travellers.
Insp Gaskin said the crash had nothing to do with the weather events of the past week.
He said a scene examination was still in process and the road was likely to be closed for much of the afternoon.
The formal identification process of the victims was also likely to take some time, he said.
