Car crash in front of family
The daughter and wife of a man who died in a crash in North Taranaki on Sunday were following right behind him when he crashed.
Haji Abu Bakar Ramli, 56, died at the scene after his car collided with another vehicle at a bend in the Awakino Gorge at 1.30pm.
Ramli’s daughter Nurghaklisaa Aquila Abu Bakar said the family was moving to Auckland and her father was driving with most of their possessions while she and her mother followed closely behind.
‘‘The whole thing happened slowly ... like slow motion.
‘‘I saw him skid, then the other car came from around the bend and they hit each other, then he hit a bank,’’ she said.
‘‘We stopped on the side of the road and ran over to him to try get him out. We were calling his name but we knew he was not there anymore.’’
Abu Bakar said there were several doctors and nurses in the cars behind them who ran to their aid, but there was nothing they could do for Ramli.
‘‘I just don’t understand how it happened, I don’t know what he skidded on or why that happened,’’ she said.
‘‘He was driving so slow, he was always a slow driver - he hated to speed.’’
The family’s plans to move out of New Plymouth, where they’ve lived for eight years since moving from Malaysia, have been put on hold while they organise a funeral and get their head around the tragedy.
Abu Bakar said she couldn’t put into words what her father meant to her, only that he was ‘‘a very, very kind man’’.
‘‘He was known for his kind heart,’’ she said. ‘‘It was what people in the community recognised him for.’’
Following the crash, traffic was backed up for four hours while police blocked the road off to investigate the scene, opening it again by the evening.
The Waikato Westpac Rescue Helicopter was sent to scene and the driver of the other vehicle involved, a 62-year-old man from New Plymouth, was taken to Taranaki Base Hospital with serious chest and abdominal injuries. He is now in a stable condition.
The crash occurred roughly five kilometres north of the Awakino Tunnel in the Awakino Gorge - a windy stretch of State Highway 3 that connects Taranaki and the Waikato.
Sergeant Bruce Irvine of New Plymouth police said the investigation into the crash was ongoing, and at this stage the cause was unknown. ‘‘The Serious Crash Unit do a very in-depth analysis of what happens at a crash scene,’’ he said.