The crash which killed four shearing gang workers in Northern Hawke's Bay on Wednesday night was the worst on New Zealand roads in almost three years.
The grim statistics were confirmed yesterday by the NZ Transport Agency soon after police released the names of the four killed in the crash on a State Highway 2 bend on Mohaka Mill, near Paroa Station between Raupunga and Wairoa.
They were Kennedy James Weir, 49, Watson Oliver Tipu, 31, and half-brothers Raimon Keefe, 16, and Zyah Gianni Marsh, 13.
They were returning home to Wairoa when the northbound car in which they were travelling crossed the centre line on a bend and collided with an oncoming 4x4 vehicle which was towing a trailer and boat.
The only person thought to have been wearing a seatbelt in the car was front-seat and sole surviving passenger Vincent "Pumpy" Huata, 17, of Raupunga.
He was taken to Hawke's Bay Hospital, but, was not seriously hurt and was discharged.
A 62-year-old Whitianga man, John Mort, who was in the second vehicle, today remained in hospital in a stable condition.
While police are still investigating the crash, the driver of the car was thought to have been Mr Tipu, who was also a forestry worker.
Mr Weir was the only son of Jim and the late Thelma Weir, had an elder sister, and grew-up on Okare Station which his father managed for many years in the Ruakituri district north of Wairoa for the Bayly family.
Survived by partner Hine, 20-year-old son James Dean, and daughter Lou-Aesha, he had been a shepherd or shearer all his working life, his father told Hawke's Bay Today from his home in Gisborne.
His shearing had taken him to the South Island several times, as well as to Australia.
Mr Tipu had worked at Wairoa-based East Coast Lumber as well as shearing, and was known as a hard worker.
Raimon Keefe had been a pupil at Wairoa College but left during last year to go to work.
New Zealand Shearing Contractors Association president and Canterbury contractor Barry Pullen, whose own teenage son died in a crash 18 months ago, last night expressed his condolences.
"My heart goes out to them," he said. "I understand from first-hand experience what they're going through at this time."
The industry had been hit by similar tragedies over the years, but the factors were mainly the same as for other crashes on the roads: excessive speed, alcohol, failure to wear seatbelts, and driver inattention.
He said considerable safety work had been done following a crash which killed Wairoa shearer Stewart Smith and a young woolhandler in Central Otago in 2008, and a coroner's concern for a reluctance among workers to wear seatbelts.
Concern has particularly related to vans, many of which may not be legally required to be fitted with belts because of their age.A coroner had suggested laws or employment contracts to make seatbelt wearing compulsory.
Members of the association were encouraged to find alcohol-abstinent drivers for their fleets, or carry-out alcohol tests to ensure non-impaired drivers were behind the wheel. Many contractors were not members of the association, but with most larger-scale operations on board members were responsible for an estimated 70 to 75 per cent of the national clip.
The crash was the worst tragedy on New Zealand roads since four people died on State Highway 30 near Benneydale in the King Country in May 2009. That accident claimed the lives of Dannevirke couple Lucan Ryder and Patricia Matthews and daughter Monique in one vehicle and a woman in the second vehicle.
It was also the worst in Hawke's Bay since four male teenagers died when a car in which they were travelling left Hastings suburban street Windsor Ave and hit a tree in July 2005.
The worst crash on Hawke's Bay roads was the Mohaka Bridge housebus tragedy in October 1995 in which eight people died as the vehicle crashed through a rail on the State Highway 5 bridge between Napier and Taupo and plunged 50m into the Mohaka River.
Members of bereaved families were understood to have gone to Gisborne and Tauranga yesterday awaiting release of bodies.