Blackspot claims more casualties

The car involved in Wednesday night's Hawke's Bay Expressway crash near Westshore, its roof removed to extract two of the badly injured occupants.

Two people are fighting for their lives and another was also seriously injured in a crash at a highway blackspot between Napier and Hawke's Bay Airport on Wednesday night.

The crash happened just after 9.15pm when a car travelling north on the Hawke's Bay Expressway turned right onto Meeanee Quay (State Highway 2) and into the path of a southbound truck.

The male driver, thought to be aged 20 and a resident of Napier, was rushed to hospital with his two female passengers.

The two in the front seats were cut from the wrecked Nissan Primera.

Last night the two women remained in critical condition in Hawke's Bay Hospital's intensive care unit, while the driver was in a stable condition in a general ward, District Health Board staff reported.

The driver of the truck, fully laden with offal on a trip from Te Kuiti to Hawke's Bay, was not injured, but was in shock, police said.

Police Eastern District acting road policing manager Senior Sergeant Greg Brown said police were investigating the cause of the crash at an intersection regarded as one of the worst in New Zealand.

In 2012 it was ranked fifth of the top 100 "high-risk" intersections in the highways network throughout New Zealand, with 32 casualties, including one fatality, since the northern extension of the expressway, from Taradale Rd to Meeanee Quay, opened in May 2003.

Plans are being made for roadworks, possibly a roundabout, that could include rerouting traffic to and from Hawke's Bay Airport, the entrance to which is a few hundred metres to the north.

It is hoped work will start in the 2016-2017 year.

Mr Brown said the road was wet and light drizzle was falling at the time of the crash, but added: "At this stage there is no clear indication as to why the crash occurred.

"It is too early to say what caused this crash, but previous crashes have generally been as the result of driver error," he said.

"Under the Safer Systems approach, road safety partners continually work to reduce the risks on our roads, and even though there are no obvious faults with the design of the intersection, people should not die because they make a mistake.

"Whilst the intersection is well laid out, there have been a number of crashes at the location, including previous fatal crashes.

For some unexplained reason it remains an intersection of concern for our area."

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