Two tourists badly hurt in another collision
Two foreign tourists are fighting for their lives following a Waikato road crash.
The pair were seriously injured after a collision on the Hauraki Plains between their car and a truck carrying timber on Friday.
A female passenger suffered life-threatening injuries in the head-on smash south of Ngatea, and a male driver had critical injuries.
The accident happened about 1pm on State Highway 27 at Kaihere Hill.
Initial indications were that the northbound rental car had lost control on a downhill bend and then collided with a southbound truck, Waikato police spokesman Jeff Penno said.
It had been a bad week on Waikato roads ‘‘and police feel this more than anyone’’, Penno said.
On Wednesday, three American tourists died in a crash in Ngahinapouri, southwest of Hamilton. Two couples from Utah, the Barnetts and Petersons, were on their way to visit the Mormon Temple.
Richard Lee Barnett, 56, the driver of the vehicle and its sole survivor appeared at the Hamilton District Court on Friday for sentencing on three charges of careless driving causing death, before Judge David Ruth.
Judge Ruth sentenced Barnett to pay the truck driver involved in the crash a sum of $1500 for emotional harm and pay a fine of $3000; $1000 for each charge.
Judge Ruth told Barnett that he is one of many foreign drivers in recent weeks to be involved in car accidents on New Zealand roads. ‘Perhaps it’s because they come from jurisdiction where you drive on a different side of the road and your instincts take over at times of stress? I just don’t know,’’ he said.