Tutira fatal crash victim yet to be named by police

Debris at the scene. Photo / Warren Buckland

Police on Tuesday were yet to release the name of a young man who died when the car he was driving and a ute collided on a narrow rural road between Napier and Wairoa on Monday afternoon.

The crash happened just after 4pm on Matahorua Rd, near the intersection with Tutira Station Rd and less than a kilometre west of State Highway 2 landmark the Tutira Store.

A man in his 20s and understood to be from elsewhere in Hawke's Bay but working in the area died at the scene.

The driver of the second vehicle, understood to be a resident of the Tutira area, was not seriously injured but was taken to hospital as a precaution, said police Eastern District road policing manager Inspector Matt Broderick.

Police said late on Tuesday the name of the deceased would not be released until all family had been advised.

The drivers were the only occupants of the vehicles.

Broderick said the position of the vehicles indicated one had crossed the road resulting in a head-on collision. The weather was a continuation of the fine conditions in Hawke's Bay.

Traffic management was in place while crash investigators remained at the scene until well into the night, leaving behind just minimal indication of the tragedy just on the Tutira side of the intersection.

According to Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency road toll figures there have been eight fatalities this year on roads in Hawke's Bay (Napier, Hastings and Central Hawke's Bay), one more than the toll from January 1-June 8 last year.

Nationally the toll to midnight on Monday was 173, which compared with 123 at the same stage of 2019.

Regional tolls were up marginally in Northland, Hawke's Bay, Manawatu and Otago.