Police warning after crash

Farm manager Kieran Wills with dogs Ice and Meg, in the snow off the Napier-Taihape Rd yesterday. PHOTO / DUNCAN BROWN

Police are urging motorists to be extra vigilant, in the face of continuing wintry weather in Hawke's Bay.

The call comes after a crash on Tuesday on Waimarama Rd that has left a 33-year-old woman fighting for her life in hospital.

Police said early indications were that speed and wet conditions may have contributed to the crash.

The Waimarama woman was heading toward Hastings when the sedan she was driving smashed through a farm fence and plummeted 20 metres down a hill, landing on its roof and trapping her inside. She was the only occupant of the vehicle and alerted a nearby farmer by repeatedly beeping her horn. The farmer found her trapped in the vehicle, phoned emergency services and waited with the woman until they arrived.

Police said the woman was lucky to have been able to summon help, in conditions where her health could easily have deteriorated in the cold. She was rescued from the car by firefighters using hydraulic cutting equipment and airlifted to hospital by the Lowe Corporation rescue helicopter.

A spokeswoman for Hawke's Bay Hospital said she was in a critical condition and had been transferred to Christchurch for further treatment.

In light of the crash and inclement weather, police advised motorists to drive to the conditions at all times and to modify their driving as the weather changed.
It was vital people regularly checked their vehicles for roadworthiness, especially the condition of their tyres. Worn tyres had much less contact with the road in wet conditions than fully treaded ones.

Senior Sergeant Clint Adamson said the only crash yesterday that was possibly weather related happened when a van rolled into a bank on Avery Rd at Eskdale, about 8am. The 25-year-old female driver was not seriously hurt.

There had been no serious crashes yesterday.

"In these conditions, it's good news," he said.