Rescuers in shock after grisly car crash

The wrecks of two vehicles involved in Saturday's crash were taken away that night. Photo / Herald on Sunday

One of the first people on the scene of a four-person fatal crash is recovering from the trauma of trying to free a 10-year-old boy pinned against a car door by his dead father.

The horrific collision occurred on State Highway 30 near Benneydale on Saturday. Last night, the holiday weekend road toll stood at eight.

Turangi man Craig Matene was travelling with his 13-year-old daughter Micaela after watching her play netball in Taupo.

The 46-year-old welder was heading to Benneydale to watch his two sons, aged 17 and 23, play rugby when a blue Falcon overtook his 4WD before "fish-tailing" all over the road and colliding head-on with a Mitsubishi Diamante.

The cars caught fire on impact, said Mr Matene, who helped to pull people from the wreckage.

"Both my daughter and I have received victim support. It is a nightmare we have to live with," he said.

Three people from the Falcon were killed in the crash: Lucan Ryder, 29, his wife, Patricia Matthews, 30, and their daughter, Monique Ryder, 9, of Dannevirke.

The couple's sons Rico, 4, and Tarshaye, 10, were taken to Waikato Hospital before being moved to the Starship in Auckland yesterday.

A woman in the Mitsubishi was killed and passenger Dennis Lattimer, 63, a mural artist from Opunake, was taken to Waikato Hospital.

Yesterday, he was in a stable condition in the high-dependency unit following surgery.

After the crash, Mr Matene quickly assessed the damage before driving to a nearby farmhouse, where a woman was already telephoning ambulance staff. He went back to the crash site, where more motorists were helping.

Mr Matene held a front door of the Falcon open while another man pulled out Rico and Monique.

He and others then tried to free Tarshaye, whose dead father had ended up sitting on top of him in the backseat, but the back doors would not open and Mr Ryder was too heavy to move. Firefighters using cutting gear later freed the boy.

About 6am yesterday, a chemical tanker swerved to avoid a pedestrian on State Highway 1 at Ohakea but still hit the Feilding 22-year-old and overturned into a ditch, killing also the driver, a 48-year-old from Wellington.

Five hours earlier, one person died and two others were taken to hospital after a three-car crash on the Southern Motorway, north of the Princes St off-ramp at Otahuhu, said Inspector Shawn Rutene of northern police communications.

On Saturday night, a 23-year-old Lower Hutt man died when crushed by a Land Rover that slipped down a 10m bank and landed on him in the Waitotara Valley. The man was on the tray of the vehicle possum-spotting with a flashlight when the vehicle slipped on the greasy surface.