Scooter rider seriously injured

While Hawke's Bay didn't feature in the three road fatalities at the weekend, the volume of accidents and injuries in the province made disturbing reading.
* A teenage scooter rider was among the seriously injured following a collision in Hastings on Saturday night.
Senior Constable Cory Ubels of the Hastings Serious Crash Unit said Conor Gage, 17, was travelling south on State Highway 2 about 7.40pm when a ute containing four teenage girls turned in front of the scooter at the intersection of the highway and Napier Rd.
Mr Gage and his scooter ended up underneath the ute. The four girls in the ute, including the 16-year-old driver who was on a restricted licence, were unharmed.
Mr Gage suffered serious head injuries and multiple fractures. He was transported by ambulance to Hawke's Bay Hospital before being airlifted to Wellington Hospital. This morning he was in a stable condition and recovering in the intensive care unit.
Police investigations are continuing and charges may be laid as a result.
* Just a few hours later another teenager was hit by a car while walking in Havelock Rd, a few kilometres away. The driver of the offending car, also a teenager, was now facing drink driving charges
The arm of the 16-year-old woman pedestrian was broken in the incident at 2.40am.
Senior Sergeant Stu Fleming said the driver, also a 16-year-old, did not remain at the scene, but was located after a community patrol found her vehicle.
* A head-on collision on State Highway 2 near Norsewood after 7pm last night resulted in two people being taken to hospital.
The drivers were the only occupants of each car. The male driver of one was flown to Hawke's Bay hospital in a serious condition, while the woman was taken to Palmerston North with what was believed to be broken bones.
An investigation into the accident was underway.
It was a hectic weekend elsewhere on Central Hawke's Bay roads.
There was one fatality on Friday night, when a roaming horse was struck and killed by a car at Porongahau on Friday night. Another accident saw an elderly driver fail to negotiate an easy bend on Woburn St, Waipukurau about 2.20pm on Saturday.
The driver, 90, and his wife were flown to Hawke's Bay Hospital as a precaution but were not seriously injured. On Sunday a motorcyclist received minor injuries in Waipawa after a car allegedly pulled out of Church Rd onto Main Rd and into his path.
* Icy road conditions were to blame for two crashes within 10 minutes on the Napier-Taupo Rd yesterday.
Senior Constable Taina Puketapu said police were alerted to the first crash about 1pm when a van hit an icy patch just north of the road summit and skidded off the road into the hillside.
Two tyres were blown but the driver was uninjured.
While police were on the scene a motorcyclist hit the same patch of ice also resulting in him skidding off the road.
His protective gear and helmet saved him from serious injuries.
Mr Puketapu said it was important for drivers to follow the advisory speed signs of 65km/h in the area as icy patches could form in shaded areas.
Both drivers had been travelling at slightly above the recommended speed.
The temperature dropped to -3 at the summit overnight Saturday and Mr Puketapu warned drivers that even if the sun was out there was still ice risks.
Often the sun melted ice on higher areas of the hill resulting in the water trickling down and re-freezing in shaded locations.
Two weeks ago another two crashes were reported south of the summit in similar circumstances resulting in a mother and daughter requiring hospital treatment.
* Hastings police are questioning a male motorist after a tree managed to wedge itself in his sedan's radiator outside Stortford Lodge BP petrol station in the early hours of Sunday.
Police later caught up with the driver who initially fled the scene. Senior Sergeant Greg Brown said police suspected alcohol was a factor in the crash.
The man, who was not injured, was the sole occupant of the car.
And this morning a female motorist was lucky to escape serious injury when her car smashed through a residential fence in Hastings at 7.30am after she failed to give way on the corner of Willowpark and St Aubyn Streets.
The woman received minor injuries.
It was not known if charges would be laid. Hastings Senior Sergeant Ross Smith said, ``From what I know so far most of these drivers were locals, so there wasn't a lot of out of towners or activities to increase the province's traffic flow at the weekend.
``It comes back to the basics _ slowing down and driving to the conditions. People are trying to get from A to B too quickly.''