More carnage on our roads
It’s been another deadly weekend on Waikato roads with a spate of road crashes. Libby Wilson and Mike Mather report.
Two people have been killed and another is fighting for their life after a lethal weekend on roads around the region.
One man was killed in a two-car crash in Matamata on Friday night while a motorcyclist died after crashing into a bank on a road in the Coromandel on Saturday night.
And in a situation that was still unfolding when the Waikato Times went to press last night, four people were flown to hospitals in Tauranga and Waikato from another two-car crash on the lower Kaimai Range.
That collision happened about 3pm at the intersection of State Highway 29 and McLaren Falls Rd yesterday, Senior Sergeant Denis Murphy said.
The road was closed to traffic while emergency services worked at the scene.
Three people, believed to be women in their 20s, were flown to hospital in a serious condition. It is understood one of the patients has since been flown to Waikato Hospital in a critical condition.
Firefighters from Tauranga also attended and cut one person from one of the cars, northern communications shift manager Steve Smith said.
The Matamata crash happened at the intersection of State Highway 27 and Pohlen Rd about 10pm on Friday. The police Serious Crash Unit was sent to the scene.
An Auckland couple in their 70s are moved to the Waikato Westpac rescue helicopter for transport to Waikato Hospital from yesterday’s two-car collision on State Highway 31, near Otorohanga.
‘‘A vehicle has turned from SH27 on to Pohlen Rd on to Waharoa Rd East and has been collected by a vehicle travelling towards Waharoa,’’ Waikato road policing manager Inspector Dana McDonald said.
The man, who had been in a car travelling from SH27, died at the scene.
Four people in the other vehicle suffered injuries and two were flown to Waikato Hospital in the Westpac rescue helicopter.
McDonald said it was too early to say if alcohol or speed were factors in the crash.
And a 59-year-old man died in hospital, following a motorcycle crash near Thames on Saturday.
The crash happened on Kopu-Hikuai Rd, a popular Coromandel route, at 3.35pm.
ROAD CRASHES
crash, one man dead.
Two-car crash, three serious injuries, one critical.
‘‘It’s too early to confirm what caused the crash but initial indications are a 59-year-old male rider has lost control on the road and collided with a bank,’’ Senior Constable Graham Fitzpatrick said. ‘‘The man was taken to Waikato Hospital in a serious to critical condition, but died a short time later.’’
Police asked anyone who saw the crash to contact Constable Gregory Resink of Whangamata Police on 07 888 7117.
The Waikato Westpac rescue helicopter attended a series of other crashes involving motorbikes.
The first was at a farm south of Morrinsville about 8pm on Friday night.
A 14-year-old boy had come off his motorbike in a hilly paddock. He was treated for neck and back injuries at the scene and flown to Waikato Hospital.
On Saturday evening, the chopper went to an isolated beach south of Port Waikato to transport two boys with suspected leg fractures. The pair were riding motorbikes on the beach when they collided with each other.
St John paramedics treated the boys before they were flown to Middlemore Hospital.
When the helicopter returned it had to be sent out again to a farm near Karamu, southwest of Whatawhata, where a 25-year-old farm worker had fallen off his
A police officer records details at the scene of the Kaimai Range crash at the intersection of State Highway 29 and McLaren Falls Rd yesterday. motorbike and had to be flown to Waikato Hospital.
Yet another crash on a busy rural highway near Otorohanga closed the road yesterday.
Two vehicles collided on SH31 about 11.30am, Senior Sergeant Dave Hall said.
Four people suffered minor to serious injuries, including an elderly couple.
SH31 was closed at the intersection with Waitomo Valley Rd for about three hours. Police had spoken to a number of witnesses.
The couple airlifted to Waikato Hospital were Aucklanders and in their 70s.
Yesterday afternoon they were serious but stable and under assessment in the emergency department.
mike.mather@fairfaxmedia.co.nz