‘I saw the biker goup in the air’
"We have guys who have been riding their whole lives who end up having crashes." Inspector Brett Calkin
A witness to a fatal crash near the Manawatu Gorge has described the horrifying scene that unfolded before her eyes.
‘‘I saw the biker go up in the air and I don’t know what happened after that,’’ Samantha Harwood said.
Harwood herself became involved in the crash near Ashhurst on Monday that killed a motorcyclist, saying a ute and the motorcyclist collided and then the ute hit her car.
Once out of the car, Harwood checked on the driver of the ute. ‘‘I thought he was dead.’’ The driver was unconscious but then Harwood saw him moving and she was soon pulled away by her partner, Tyson Hulena, as he noticed the vehicle leaking fuel.
‘‘It was leaking and there was smoke coming out. It just stunk,’’ she said.
Two people were taken to Palmerston North Hospital with moderate injuries.
Harwood fractured her wrist but said it could have been a whole lot worse.
Harwood and Hulena’s car was a wreck, leaving the couple without a way to get home to Taranaki after Christmas in Palmerston North.
The death of the motorcyclist adds to the rising road toll.
The latest Ministry of Transport figures show 50 motorcyclists were killed in road accidents across the country in 2015, the most since 1997.
The deaths made up 17 per cent of all fatal road crashes in New Zealand, the highest since 1989.
These figures came from the ministry’s Motorcycle Crash Facts 2016 report, which looked at crash data from 1985 until 2015.
Central District road policing manager Inspector Brett Calkin said they always encouraged motorcyclists to ride defensively.
‘‘Often motorists don’t see them.
‘‘They are a lot smaller on the road than cars and trucks, so that makes them more difficult to see and to judge their speed.’’
Calkin said there had been serious crashes in the Central District this year involving motorcyclists where the rider died or was seriously injured.
‘‘We have had a couple of motorcyclists killed ... this year.’’ Everyone was vulnerable. ‘‘We have guys who have been riding their whole lives who end up having crashes,’’ Calkin said.
‘‘Just because you have been riding for a long time and you are experienced doesn’t make you immune from having a serious crash.
‘‘We have had some who were really seriously injured who have been really experienced and it hasn’t been their fault. ‘‘I know one who lost a leg.’’ He encouraged motorcyclists to ride defensively, suggesting things like always driving with their headlights on.