Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Badly injured woman spent 50 minutes trapped in car after Napier-Taupō Rd crash

By Chris Hyde
Hawkes Bay Today·
2 Jul, 2020 01:08 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

A truck climbs the Napier-Taupo Rd on Thursday. Photo / Warren Buckland

A truck climbs the Napier-Taupo Rd on Thursday. Photo / Warren Buckland

A badly hurt woman trapped in a crashed car in an isolated part of the Napier-Taupō road waited 50 minutes before firefighters with specialist equipment to cut her free arrived.

Firefighters say that while the stretch of State Highway 5 is one they are being called to regularly, its isolation means there's not much more they can do in these situations.

Three people involved in the crash near Te Haroto on Wednesday evening, a woman in her 40s and two young boys, remained in Hawke's Bay Hospital in stable conditions on Thursday morning.

A fourth person injured, a man in his 50s, was discharged on Wednesday night.

Emergency services were called to the crash, a vehicle that hit and felled a concrete power pole, at 4.33pm.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The Hawke's Bay Rescue Helicopter transported two people to hospital while the other two went by St John ambulances, two of which had arrived from Taupō and one from Napier, all of which arrived on scene about 5pm.

The road was closed for four hours, with vehicles at both ends turned back, and did not fully reopen until just after 3.30am.

Eight deaths have already been recorded from five separate crashes on the road from December 2019 to June 2020.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

A week ago 10-year-old Teang Atauea died in Hawke's Bay Hospital after a crash in a nearby stretch of the road on June 23.

Napier station senior fire officer Glenn Drew said the car had effectively rolled onto its back during the crash, and the woman was trapped inside.

Using cutting equipment, they were able to clear a path to put her onto a stretcher and then get her to the rescue helicopter.

"For some reason it's almost always in and around Te Haroto.

"I don't know what it is about that stretch, but 60 to 70 per cent of the time, when we're called it's for that area."

Te Pohue nearby has a volunteer fire brigade trained to deal with medical events and securing scenes but do not have access to the specialist cutting equipment that paid fire brigades in Hastings and Napier do.

Hawke's Bay principal rural officer Trevor Mitchell said it was a similar situation in Putorino on State Highway 2 between Bay View and Wairoa.

"The reality is that some parts of Hawke's Bay and New Zealand are pretty remote. That's an isolated stretch of road."

Truck driver Antony Alexander, who has called for safety improvements on the road, said he didn't believe there was much more emergency services could do in these situations.

However, there was a desperate need for cellphone coverage in the area to prevent the potential for even more delays, he said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

How new speed limits are making Hastings schools safer

Hawkes Bay Today

Heavy rain watch north of Napier, potential to be upgraded to warning

Hawkes Bay Today

Four crashes in Hawke’s Bay send four to hospital


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

How new speed limits are making Hastings schools safer
Hawkes Bay Today

How new speed limits are making Hastings schools safer

The changes are part of Hastings' early rollout of lower speed limits.

16 Jul 03:49 AM
Heavy rain watch north of Napier, potential to be upgraded to warning
Hawkes Bay Today

Heavy rain watch north of Napier, potential to be upgraded to warning

16 Jul 01:20 AM
Four crashes in Hawke’s Bay send four to hospital
Hawkes Bay Today

Four crashes in Hawke’s Bay send four to hospital

15 Jul 11:58 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP