Victims of Muriwai Beach 4WD crash farewelled
Friends, family and colleagues have gathered to farewell the four men killed at Muriwai Beach on September 13.
Syed Jafri, 29, Dilpreet Singh, 32, Pulkit Malhotra, 27, and Imad Dib, 31, died when they were thrown from their four-wheeldrive. On Monday morning a line of Land Rovers drove up the beach to the spot where the 4WD flipped.
After a blessing and waiata, bouquets of flowers were thrown into the sea.
Singh’s sister, Navpreet Kaur Talwar, said he was a family man.
‘‘We are still so in shock and don’t know what to say.’’
The event was put on and funded by the local community.
The men were from Pakistan, India and Lebanon. Jafri and Singh were New Zealand residents.
Jafri, Singh and Dib worked at Queens Academy Group, an educational institute in central Auckland.
The men died after the vehicle they were travelling in rolled at the West Auckland beach. The damaged 4WD had to be towed out of the surf by a tractor.
Waitemata road policing manager Inspector Trevor Beggs said the vehicle flipped and rolled several times, throwing out all four men.
It was not known who was driving but it was possible none of them were wearing seatbelts, he said.
Muriwai Beach Volunteer Fire Brigade officer and Rodney Local Board member Phelan Pirrie said there were a lot of serious accidents on the beach that were unreported. More people were buying recreational SUVs and Muriwai Beach was an easily accessible place for them to drive.
‘‘The trouble is it goes wrong really, really quickly. Generally driving on sand can be quite problematic, ’’ Pirrie said.
Auckland Council began trialling a permit system on September 1, meaning anyone driving on Muriwai Beach needs to have a permit.