Dad, 2 sons killed in head-on crash

A Napier father and his two sons died after a head-on collision near Te Pohue yesterday. They were among 10 road fatalities in what police are calling a black weekend. A man, 48, and his two sons, aged 18 and 10, had been heading for Tarawera to go pig-hunting.
The man was originally from Raupunga. His wife and daughter, also in the blue Ford Sierra stationwagon, survived the crash but were taken to Hawke's Bay Hospital with serious injuries.
In the second vehicle, a southbound white Subaru Impreza, a man, 30, and woman, 25, from Hastings, received moderate injuries and were also taken to hospital.
The crash happened about 2.30pm on a bend 8km north of the Glengarry Road turn-off and police were today seeking information about both vehicles as they headed to the crash scene. A police spokesman said the two brothers, who had been in the back of the car, had not been wearing seatbelts. They and their father died at the scene.
Although it was not raining at the time of the crash the roads were wet.
Police today appealed for any witnesses who may have seen either vehicle in the time leading up to the crash.
In a second serious crash at the weekend, the Lowe Corporation rescue helicopter was called to take a seriously injured motorcyclist to Hawke's Bay Hospital.
The man, who was riding alone, was travelling south on State Highway 2 when he lost control of his motorcycle and crashed over a scrub-covered bank.
Rescuers said he was lucky to have been spotted by a passing motorist who called the emergency services.
Fire service personnel from Putorino and Wairoa got the injured man back to the road where he was stabilised by St John Ambulance staff before the airlift to hospital.
The two crashes were the worst in what Napier police traffic sergeant Bruce Dean called " a very bad weekend" on the region's roads.
Staff attended 14 crashes, most of them minor, and most caused by what Mr Dean said was driver error rather than the wet conditions.
It was the worst weekend of crashes this year, according to National Road Policing Manager Superintendent Dave Cliff. He said the public needed to look at their attitude to such carnage.
"Often they're referred as accidents. Very, very few are. Most occur because drivers make bad decisions or choose to break the law," Mr Cliff said.
"I guess what we need to do is start not viewing them as an act of God, as something that just happens.
"They happen because people often choose to drive in these ways."
Poor weather in many parts of the country was believed to have contributed to some of the crashes but could not be blamed for them all, Mr Cliff said.
"The biggest killer out there on our roads remains travelling over the speed limit or too fast for conditions. "I think people too easily forget that the human body is extremely fragile and when impact speeds get much over 30km/h, the chances of the human body being able to survive those speeds drops off dramatically."
Modern cars made people feel safe and insulated but they had to remember the body was still "extraordinarily fragile", he said.