Crashes cause chaos on Harbour Bridge
Eight people have been killed on New Zealand roads this holiday period and many motorists were caught in backlogged traffic yesterday as emergency services attended multiple crashes on Auckland’s Harbour Bridge.
Last night the NZ Transport Agency was urging motorists to delay travel between Auckland City and the North Shore after a crash in a southbound lane blocked much of the busy route just after 5pm.
Traffic was heavily congested as the crash site was cleared.
Just after midday another crash caused traffic chaos on the bridge.
One motorist told the Herald it looked like a caravan had detached from a car.
The caravan appeared to have been then hit by another car.
“There were only two lanes open so it was chaos basically,” he said.
Police and the NZTA were urging drivers to take care on the roads after the 2018 road toll reached the highest number of fatalities in almost a decade. Provisional figures show 379 people died on the roads during 2018 — one more than during the previous year. It is the worst road toll since 2009 when 384 people lost their lives.
Authorities are calling it an “absolute tragedy” and urging people to be responsible on the roads during the rest of the holiday period.
The holiday period started on Christmas Eve and finishes at 6am on January 3. So far eight people have lost their lives in separate crashes.
On Christmas Day 17-year-old Felix Newton was killed when he crashed his ute into the Whanganui River.
On December 27 a man was seriously injured in a crash at Taupo. He later died on December 30.
Kusum Sarin, a 63-year-old woman from India, died and four others were injured in a crash in Palmerston North on December 28.
The next day two people were killed.
A man died after crashing into the Opaoa River at a Blenheim campground at 12.55am.
Later in the morning a 25-year-old Wellington man died when the motorcycle he was riding on SH1 was hit by a car being driven the wrong way down the motorway.
On December 30 an 84-year-old man died in hospital several hours after a crash in Parnell, Auckland.
Two people died in separate crashes on New Year’s Eve.
At 1.30pm one person died and another was seriously injured in a crash on SH1, north of Waihola in Otago.
Then at 11.17pm a man died after the car he was in with three others crashed down a 10m bank and onto rocks in Colville. A boy in the vehicle suffered critical injuries while two others were seriously injured.
The Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust flew the boy to Starship children’s hospital, where his condition was later described as stable.