Night of horror: 12 injured

The scene of the car accident involving 3 people at Auckland Airport. Photo / supplied

Three people were taken to hospital after a car ploughed into them from behind as they were taking luggage from a taxi at Auckland Airport last night.

And at exactly the same time, nine people were injured - two seriously - in a four-car smash on State Highway 1 north of the city.

The crashes capped a week of carnage on the roads, including two fatal smashes in three days on the same stretch of road in Wairarapa.

Police said both last night's crashes happened at 6.13pm.

Taxi driver Mohammad Khalil told the Herald he picked up four people from the international terminal and was dropping them at the domestic terminal when the accident happened.

He said the three back-seat passengers, all men, were retrieving their bags from the boot when a silver Mercedes slammed into them.

The driver of the Mercedes, a woman in her 80s, told the Herald she was at the airport to pick up her daughter.

She said her high-heeled boot caught on the accelerator when she leaned forward to open the passenger door.

"It really was the most terrible thing," she said. "It was really and truly awful. I didn't mean to do it at all."

Her daughter said: "It screeched forward and went straight into the men. Her car then went up on to the back of the taxi. It was horrifying."

The elderly driver said she had never had a crash before, and it was "a complete accident".

"I was shaking afterwards, I really was. I couldn't believe what happened."

Mr Khalil said he heard shouting. When he got out of the taxi, he saw the three men lying on the ground and phoned 111.

Airport staff quickly put screens up around the injured men as paramedics treated them.

One was wheeled to a waiting ambulance in a wheelchair, the others on stretchers.

They were taken to Middlemore Hospital with minor and moderate injuries.

The four-car crash on State Highway 1 at Pohuehue between Warkworth and Waiwera resulted in the road being closed.

Nine people were taken to North Shore Hospital, two with serious injuries.

Staff from the Waitemata serious crash unit and highway patrol were at the scene last night trying to determine the cause of the crash.

Senior Station Officer Devan Flewellyn, of Warkworth, said the fire crew had to cut two men out of one of the cars which ended up perched on top of a crash barrier.

"I have no idea how it got up there, but that's where it ended up ... There were cars everywhere."

Mr Flewellyn said it appeared as though several of the cars had collided head-on.

When he arrived at the scene, several people were standing around but everyone seemed calm.

"They weren't really badly injured. I think it was just the huge number of people who had been injured."

Mr Flewellyn said the cars were all "wrecked" and it was fortunate no one had been killed.

Two hours later and about 6km south, two cars collided near the turn-off to Puhoi, flipping one on to its roof.

One person was treated at the scene for minor injuries.

On Saturday, 47-year-old Northland man Horihau Simon was killed after the motorhome he was in crashed down a bank on State Highway 2, north of Masterton.

His 10-year-old son was with him, but was not seriously injured.

The boy was checked at hospital and discharged.

No other vehicle was involved, and yesterday, police were still investigating the cause of the crash.

A spokesman said it did not appear that alcohol was a factor, but tests would be done.

Three days earlier, on the same stretch of road, Thomas Mark Brian Morison, 19, from Masterton died after he lost control of his car near Eketahuna, slid into a culvert and rolled.

A third man was killed early on Saturday morning when a vehicle crashed into a powerpole on Puketona Rd at Haruru in the Bay of Islands.