Drive error a tragedy for family

A man badly hurt when a car rolled over two people on Friday asked rescuers about his son — who was killed in the incident on a Muriwai driveway — as he was comforted, a neighbour says.

The neighbour, who did not want to be named, rushed to help after hearing yelling on the long driveway off Oaia Rd in the West Auckland beach suburb.

He and three helpers already at the scene rolled the car — at that point right side up — off the two men, the neighbour said.

A woman in the car when the tragedy unfolded about 1pm was uninjured.

As others started CPR on the younger man, the neighbour comforted the older man.

The man, in his 60s, was later flown by Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter to Auckland City Hospital with a severely broken leg.

“He said he was from Hong Kong. He was pretty calm . . . [but] he wanted to know how his son was.”

The neighbour also took a turn performing CPR on the younger man, to no avail.

“There was nothing.”

He believed the woman was the wife and mother of the two men. She didn’t speak English, he said. “She was pretty hard to console.”

Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter crewman and co-pilot Aaron Knight said it appeared the family had become stuck after getting lost down the driveway, which is several kilometres long and leads to multiple properties.

The men were crushed when the vehicle rolled on them after they tried to push it.

Another neighbour said many people mistook the driveway for a public road.