Police have named the two people killed in a crash on State Highway 10 near Kāeo on Saturday as Denise Samson, 47, and Shannon Herbert, 11, both from Kerikeri. 

The four other people injured in the crash remain in serious conditions in hospital, a police spokesperson said. An investigation into the crash is ongoing. 

The head-on collision occurred about 12.20pm on Saturday on SH 10, between Kāeo township and Kāeo Bridge. 

The crash occurred on an open road with a 100km/h speed limit. SH10 was closed north of Kāeo for several hours with traffic diverted via Matauri Bay Rd. 

Six people were involved – a man and a five-year-old child in a south-bound Ford Ranger ute, and a mother and three sons in a Subaru station wagon heading north. 

Two other children in the station wagon, aged 12 and 13, survived but were seriously injured. 

At least one person was trapped in the wreckage and had to be cut free by volunteers of the Kāeo, Kerikeri and Mangonui fire brigades, who also provided initial first aid. 

Senior Constable Warren Bunn, of the police Serious Crash Unit, said the collision occurred a few hundred metres north of the former oyster processing plant on a straight piece of road. 

The weather was fine, both vehicles were relatively new and in good condition, and everyone was wearing a seatbelt. 

The investigation was continuing but driver fatigue was a possible factor, Bunn said. 

The head-on collision occurred on an open road with a 100km/h speed limit. 

The crash forces would have been enormous, he said.