The 'well-respected” ambulance officer killed in a crash near Cambridge was heading back to Rotorua and was a long-serving St John member.

They've been honoured with tributes from other health and emergency services after the head-on crash, in which the driver of the other vehicle also died.

The ambulance officer had been driving south when the ambulance and a silver Audi collided on SH1 just south of Cambridge about 3.40am on Wednesday.

The car driver died at the scene and the critically injured ambulance officer was flown to Waikato Hospital, but died that afternoon with family by their side.

A registered nurse travelling in the ambulance as the attendant was transported to hospital in a stable condition. There were no other passengers in the ambulance.

St John is grieving the loss of the patient transfer officer, who was admitted to the Order of St John as a Member in 2004, says deputy chief executive ambulance operations Dan Ohs.

'While their primary role was within the patient transfer service, they were also active in their support of both event health services and emergency ambulance.”

The officer was one of a very small number to lose their life in the line of duty in New Zealand in the last 80 years, Ohs says, and their family had asked for privacy.

Fellow emergency services have paid their respects, with Tūrangi Fire Brigade observing a minute's silence on its Wednesday night parade.

'On behalf of our brigade, we send all our Aroha and Support due to the loss of your Ambulance Officer,” condolences posted on Facebook says.

'We share such a close relationship that when you hurt, we feel it too... Kia Kaha from your Fire Whanau”

Taupō Health Centre also posted in support of St John.

'Our deepest condolences to the whānau and loved ones of the highly respected Ambulance Officer.”

On Wednesday the Cambridge volunteer fire brigade chief Dennis Hunt says when the crew saw emergency services were involved, they clicked into a different gear.

'We treat everybody the same but when you see an emergency vehicle you think ‘oh golly'. You hope everybody is OK.”

The crash was probably the worst his brigade had attended all year, he saysd.

The stretch of road is notorious for serious crashes; last month a head-on crash resulted in one car catching on fire, near Hydro Rd.

In February, a person was seriously injured after a two-vehicle crash at the intersection of Karāpiro Rd and SH1.

In December five people were injured, two seriously, in a two-vehicle crash on SH1 at Karāpiro.

And the stretch had a double-fatal crash outside Alpaca Experience in May 2021, which a resident of six years described as the worst he'd ever seen. That was also an early morning crash, happening about 1.40am on May 28.

Karāpiro is also the area where a drink-driver crashed into Darren Mitchell in October 2017, snapping both his femurs and leaving him to learn to walk again.

-Jo Lines-MacKenzie/Stuff.