Tributes f low for crash victim
The daughter of a Taranaki care worker who died in a car crash during treacherous weather has questioned why flood warnings were not in place on the stretch of road.
Mother-of-four Barbara Terrill, 58, was driving to work through torrential rain at 6.30am on December 7 but never made it out of a railway underpass on State Highway 3 at Tariki.
She died in a head-on collision with a vehicle coming the other way. Her death was the 17th on a Taranaki road this year.
The crash has devastated Terill’s children, Charleen, Nicole, Nathan and Dustin, her colleagues at the Maida Vale rest home in Bell Block, outside New Plymouth, and the residents she cared for as a senior care assistant for more than 10 years.
Police senior constable Doug Peach had described the conditions at the time of the crash as ‘‘treacherous’’.
It was reported that there was a build-up of water in the northbound lane and either side of the overbridge had orange warning signs with a lower section that could reveal the word ‘flooding’. However, it was not displayed at the time.
‘‘I talked to a police officer. He said it was a river in that lane. The lane going north was just water,’’ daughter Nicole Reid said. ‘‘After the accident someone put the flooding signs down, but they should have been down beforehand.’’
The NZTA was approached for comment about the signs.
Reid said the team at Maida Vale was giving the family a lot of support. ‘‘Maida Vale was her other family. They were as much family to her as we are.’’
Dustin Terrill said his mother had moved to Stratford from Bell Block about two years ago so she could have more space for her beloved animals, including her horse, Whisper, which she owned for more than 20 years.
‘‘They had a very strong bond, that was her favourite pastime, getting out and going for a ride.’’
His mother lived her whole life in Taranaki.
‘‘She was a typical Kiwi. Grew up on a farm as well. She was a hard worker, she certainly wasn’t afraid to get her fingernails dirty.’’
Barbara Terrill’s laughter echoing down the corridor was often heard by her workmates at Maida Vale, one of her friends and colleagues said.
The woman, who didn’t want to be named, worked with Barbara Terrill at Maida Vale for many years. ‘‘Barbara was a real true friend. She was a great problem-solver, very dependable, a very straight-up person and very good in a crisis,’’ she said.
‘‘We used to go to the pub for a drink sometimes after a hard day.
‘‘One time we were having a beer and Barb noticed a man who wasn’t looking too good, and she ended up resuscitating him. He was having a heart attack.’’
The crash is being investigated by the police serious crash unit.
The other driver, a 42-year-old man, was taken by ambulance to hospital in a stable condition.