Road safety co-ordinator Sarah Wraight said there were 324 entries from "some very talented tamariki" representing about 20 schools.

Choosing the five winning entries for the Taupo District Council competition was tough, but the top designs have been selected and professionally airbrushed onto helmets for the budding artists. Read more

Northland Road Safety Trust (NRST) in partnership with Students Against Dangerous Driving (SADD) introduced the "Drive in the Moment" road safety initiative to secondary schools in Whangarei and Kaipara. It has been designed to help drivers reduce their smartphone use behind the wheel.

The purpose of the competition is to encourage young drivers to engage with the website/toolkit, develop a plan that will work for them, and put away the phone while driving.

The total prize pool was set at $5000, where the first place received $3000, the second $1500, and the third $500. Read more

Now, some Peter's College students make film to honour friend.

Three of his closest friends, James Sutherland-Cameron, Oliver van Lent and Ned Drumm, have spent a month putting together the video, titled Robbie.

"How do we handle grief? What happens following the death of a dear friend? We hope you enjoy and find this film beneficial," they say.

Watch video

Scenes of the January crash set the scene, followed by video snippets and photos of the teen boys and interviews about their grief.

Sutherland-Cameron, an aspiring film-maker, said the film tackles the issue of road safety through the lens of their experience.

"There has been a lot of death on the road lately," he said. "Boys my age are still zooming down the road. You could be sitting in a car and someone zooms past you and it makes you think."

"But some people still aren't thinking."

"You aren't just in charge of your own life but the others around you," he said. "You are in charge of the car in front of you and the pedestrian in front of you, you know?

There were two other people in the car; a 20-year-old driver and a 19-year-old passenger.

"I guess I just feel what I feel for them, they loved Robbie as much as we did," Sutherland-Cameron said.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: Screenshot YouTube

For more than 20 years, Our Lady of the Highway - known to locals as Matou Whaea (Our Lady) - has looked out over State Highway 12 from a hillside in Omanaia, in staunchly Catholic South Hokianga.

However, time and weather had taken its toll on the statue, cast almost 150 years ago from melted-down armaments collected from a European battlefield, and it was in dire need of restoration.

After a fundraising campaign, the life-size statue was removed, sandblasted and repainted, and a shelter was built to protect it from the elements.

After a three-month absence, the restored statue was unveiled last Saturday as about 30 parishioners braved mud, heavy rain and a cold wind.

It was blessed by Father Kerry Prendeville, the Hokianga priest whose brother, Father Brian Prendeville, brought the statue to Northland in the early 1990s.

Originally called Our Lady of Lourdes, it was shipped to a Marist community in Napier in the 1890s and installed at St Patrick's Church.

When the church was damaged by fire, the statue was moved to a seminary at nearby Meeanee; after a flood in 1910, the entire complex was moved to Greenmeadows.

When the seminary shifted to Auckland in 1990, the statue was left behind, ending up in the hands of Father Brian.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: nzherald.co.nz

The incident, which saw a bus plunge down a ravine in Murcia in southern Spain, was the worst such accident in the country for 13 years, officials said.

The bus was carrying passengers to their home village of Bullas back from the capital Madrid, where, according to media, they had been to a church ceremony.

The driver was charged with homicide and negligence, the prefect of the region, Joaquin Bascunana, told media, adding that it was thought the bus was travelling too fast.

The driver and his colleague tested negative for drugs and alcohol, he said.

Spanish media cited passengers saying that the driver had shouted before the crash that the coach's brakes were not working properly.

Ten of those on board, including Bullas's local priest, Fr Miguel Conesa Andúgar, 36, died in the crash.

Four others died later in hospital, the regional government said. A further 28 people were injured, 10 of them seriously.

More than 200 emergency workers rushed to the scene and worked through the night tending to the wounded, the regional government said.

The regional authorities decreed three days of mourning.

Spain's royal palace said King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia were to attend the funerals for the victims on Monday.

It was the worst coach accident in Spain since 2001, when 19 retirees died in a crash near Huelva in the southwest of the country.

Spanish authorities have cracked down on road safety in recent years by increasing fines and launching shock road safety campaigns in the media.

The number of deaths on Spain's roads fell by 72 per cent between 2003 and 2013, the interior ministry said in January.

Sources

• The Telegraph
• The Guardian
• Image: The Guardian