Power cut after man dies in pre-dawn Napier crash

A cross marks the scene of Hawke's Bay's latest road tragedy. Photo / Paul Taylor

A Napier man died when the vehicle he was in left the road and hit a pole between Napier and Meeanee early on Saturday.

The crash happened about 4.20am, on the western side of Willowbank Ave and about 300m from the Meeanee junction.

Willowbank Ave is a sometimes busy secondary road of about 4km which last month had its speed limit lowered by the Napier City Council from 100km/h to 80km/h.

Police said the man was the sole occupant and it was a single-vehicle crash.

Unison Networks relationships manager Danny Gough said electricity supply was cut to 136 customers for a short time as a result of the pole being felled.

The scene where a man died in a crash on Willowbank Ave, Meeanee, on Saturday morning. Photo / Paul Taylor

Supply was rerouted and the pole was replaced on Saturday morning, but there remained a break of 10-15m in a fence line, and a small, orange fluoro-painted cross had been placed at the scene.

Meanwhile, emergency services were called to a two-car crash in Hastings on Sunday afternoon. It happened soon after 3.30pm in Maraekakaho Rd, near the intersection with Orchard Rd and only a short distance from Hastings fire station. Fire crew attended, and assisted ambulance officers, but did not have to extricate anyone from the vehicles.

According to Ministry of Transport provisional figures the death is the fifth fatality this year on roads in the wider Hawke's Bay area, from Wairoa to Tararua, but the third in three weeks, following that of a cyclist on a rural road east of Dannevirke on May 1 and a person when a car left Railway Rd on the southern outskirts of Hastings on May 14.

None have been on the state highways 2 and 5 network, and all have been male.

The total for the year is one fewer than last year to May 21 and the lowest January 1-May 21 total for the area since 2018.

The national toll was 149, which compared with January 1-May 21 tolls of 148 in 2018, 156 in 2019, 106 in 2020, and 126 last year, the last two years having been impacted by limited travel on the nation's roads during Covid-10 lockdowns.