By Beck Vass Seven cars crashed as a heavy downpour lashed the Bay yesterday afternoon. Two women, aged 32 and 26, were taken to Tauranga Hospital for checks after the driver lost control and crashed into a ditch on State Highway 2, near Kairua Rd about 3.30pm. The younger woman received a cutto her hand which needed treatment. Just two hours later, an 18-year-old Welcome Bay woman was taken to hospital for checks when she lost control on a bend on Welcome Bay Rd and landed 10m down a bank in a paddock. Another person was taken to hospital for observation after a car rolled at the Cameron Rd and Pyes Pa Rd intersection about 3pm. Shortly before, a traffic backlog from State Highway 2 led to a two-vehicle crash at Greerton. A 17-year-old Tauranga youth was taken to Tauranga Hospital with minor injuries when he lost control, hit a bank and rolled on Cambridge Rd about 8pm. Senior Station Officer Jeff Maunder of the Tauranga Fire Service said the car was upside down in the middle of the road when firefighters arrived. Earlier in the day, an elderly couple were treated at the scene of a crash at the Whiritoa Beach turn-off, near Waihi, when the driver misjudged a corner, landing their new car in a ditch. A car lost control on a bend on Waihi Beach Rd and crashed into the rocky Waihi Beach Gorge with the occupants taken to a nearby medical centre for checks. Officer in charge of traffic in the Western Bay, Senior Sergeant Ian Campion, reminded drivers that roads were slippery when rain followed a dry spell and they needed to drive to the conditions. "The same message all the time is slow down. If it's raining, if the roads are wet, if there's high density traffic, if there's inclement weather conditions ... then people just need to slow down." Tauranga firefighters were called to clear a flooded gutter in Dell Way, Judea, at 2pm yesterday.
