Motorbike fatality lifts North toll to 7

Riding companion went back to find missing mate, who had run off the gorge road

he police Serious Crash Unit is investigating a fatal motorcycle accident on the Kaitaia Awaroa Rd on Sunday evening.

The motorcyclist, a 54-year-old Mid North man, who had been reported missing around 7.45pm, died at the scene.

Emergency services found the crash site just before 8.30pm.

Senior Constable Warren Bunn said the victim had been riding with a friend when his machine left the road on a right-hand bend and went down a bank and through a fence before coming to rest in trees about six metres below the road, just north of Dysart Rd, on the south side of the Herekino Gorge.

The pair had stopped in Herekino, and were continuing north towards Kaitaia.

The other rider stopped on the north side of the gorge to wait for his companion. When he didn’t show up he backtracked, and, finding no sign of him, called emergency services.

Police, assisted by Herekino residents, carried out a thorough search.

Neither the bike nor the rider could be seen from the road, the search ending after a police officer found faint tyre tracks in pine needles beside the road.

Volunteer firefighters from Ahipara and Kaitaia were called to help recover the body, and the road was closed between Herekino and the Roma Rd intersection while the Serious Crash Unit examined the scene.

Meanwhile, on the way to the scene, an Ahipara Fire Brigade appliance collided with a cow.

Chief Fire Officer Dave Ross said the animal, which walked away from the incident, had stepped out in front of the appliance which was not badly damaged. It was taken back to the station with a broken headlight, the crew returning to join the search in another vehicle.

The fatality, the third in Northland involving a motorcyclist this month, took Northland’s road toll for the year to date to 10, and the Far North’s to 7. The first of those motorcycle fatalities was at Tutukaka, and the second at Tangoake three days later.