Tourist dies in ‘terrible’ crash
A female tourist is believed to have been killed while walking across the car park of a Taupō supermarket.
This comes as the central North Island town welcomes thousands of people this weekend for the inaugural ITM Taupō Super400, being held at Taupō International Motorsport Park.
The incident happened in the Pak’nSave car park on Ruapehu St at 2.45pm on Wednesday, with police confirming one person died at the scene.
The driver of a vehicle and two other pedestrians were transported to Taupō Hospital with minor to moderate injuries.
A Foodstuffs spokesperson said a customer, believed to be a tourist, was struck by the car while walking across the car park. Several parked cars were also hit.
“Our store’s team members were the first on the scene and provided CPR and all the first aid they could but were unable to save the customer, who passed away at the scene.”
They said their thoughts are with everyone affected by this terrible accident.
“The store owner has been working with the authorities and has supported the travelling companions of the person who has passed away.”
Taupō mayor David Trewavas said his heart went out to the family of the dead person, saying it was a tragedy their holiday had to end like this.
He also praised supermarket staff who attempted CPR on the person before police and medics arrived.
“Staff there are devastated to have this happen at their workplace and some are quite traumatised, understandably so,” he said told the Waikato Times in an interview.
“It is the last thing anyone wants to happen on the eve of a big event like we have here this weekend.”
He believed the dead person was a 25-year-old woman from Canada who was living in Melbourne.
He could not confirm whether she had been in town for the Supercars racing, but understood the family had just done a bungy jump and were picking up supplies.
A worker in the area, who did not want to be named, understood the driver of the car panicked after backing into another vehicle and lost control before hitting the other parked cars and the pedestrians.
The scene was “quite horrific”, he was told.
Staff at the supermarket are also receiving specialist support.
The supermarket was operating as normal yesterday.