A 50-year-old Mt Maunganui woman died after lying for hours in a roadside ditch between Tauranga and Te Maunga during heavy rain early yesterday.
The woman was a passenger in a car travelling along State Highway 2 towards Te Maunga - or 'The Mount' - when about one kilometre past the Maungatapu bridge from Tauranga she asked to make a toilet stop.
She got out, climbed over the metal crash barrier on the roadside and is thought to have fallen, ending up lying in the ditch. It is believed she had been drinking.
The couple travelling with the woman were unable to move her out of the ditch.
It is believed the male driver went home and dropped his partner off before returning to the woman. Still unable to move her he called an ambulance about 2.05am.
Despite making a number of trips up and down the approximately 7km stretch of highway between the Te Maunga and Welcome Bay roundabouts, St John staff were unable to find the woman or locate the man.
They then contacted police who found the woman in the ditch about 5.10am.
She was believed to be severely hypothermic and was taken to Tauranga Hospital by Mount Maunganui St John, but died a short time later.
MetService lead forecaster John Crouch said Tauranga received the greatest dousing of heavy rain between midnight and 1am when nine millimetres an hour was falling.
Between 11pm and midnight it was falling at eight millimetres an hour. "Anything over 6 millimetres an hour we call heavy rain," he said.
About midnight the temperature dropped from 9C down to 8C, remaining stable until it rose again to 9C about 4am.
Mr Crouch said the equivalent wind chill factor would have made it feel like about 4C outside.
"It is suspected that the overnight weather conditions contributed to the death," said Detective Senior Sergeant Greg Turner.
Tauranga Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the woman's death.
- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES
Woman dies after falling in ditch
The ditch where the woman lay for over three hours in heavy rain before police found her. She died in hospital from suspected hypothermia. Photo / Bay of Plenty Times
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