Two decades on from Bay's black day

The house bus came to rest in Mohaka River. Photo / File

Today marks the 20th anniversary of Hawke's Bay's worst road crash - the Mohaka Bridge house bus crash which killed eight people on the night of September 10, 1995. Doug Laing, who reported on it and lived in the community which grieved for those who were lost, reports on the tragedy and one of its legacies - a marae for Napier.

Everyone remembers where they were when they heard of some of the world's major tragedies and dramas.

But, despite numerous history-making and emotional moments as founder and leader of a national organisation fighting for tougher penalties for serious crime, one night here in Hawke's Bay stands out for farmer Garth McVicar - the first person alerted to Hawke's Bay's worst road crash, 20 years ago today.

The gaping opening in the barrier on the western side of the Mohaka River Bridge. He, wife Ann, and their four teenagers, all in the car, lived just up the road, and knew the Napier-Taupo highway bridge was intact when they headed into town earlier in the day.

Recallling the tragic night this week, Mr McVicar said it is something he thinks about every day when he passes the centre of the sway-bridge which has been a feature of east-west travel to and from Hawke's Bay since the 50m-high State Highway 5 structure was opened in 1962.

"I knew whatever we were going to find wasn't going to be nice," he said, recalling how he headed home to call brother and tow-service operator Alan, and the police.

As emergency services started gathering resources in Napier, over 60km away and an hour from the scene, the brothers McVicar gathered ropes and torches, and radioed news of the discovery, a wrecked housebus in the riverbed, having plunged down on to the river bank and into the edge of the stream - 50m below the centre span of the bridge.

Over the next day it would emerge eight people had been killed in one of the worst road crashes in New Zealand history.

Killed in the Mohaka crash were Hinerehu June Samuels, 32, and 15-month-old son Dwayne Symon Moon; partners Matthew James Moses, 28, and Una Paea (Dar) Hounuku, 34, and 1-year-old daughter Eden Theresa Joe Seymour Moses; partners Leslie Stuart (Les) Avery, 27, and Enid Kahurangi Allen, 27, and Owen Neil Heremia, 32.

There was a survivor, a white bull terrier-cross named Cruz, understood to have been owned by bus owner Mark Devine, who had been driving only a short while earlier, until it was stopped by police near Te Pohue and he, and his keys, were taken to Bay View Police station for drink-driving, which he later admitted in court.

Police revealed they had stopped the bus about 7.25pm.

It was conjectured those left with the vehicle, a 1948 Ford which had been part of the era of Railways buses, daily carriers of the baby-boomers, had decided to get going again on a weekend drinking with friends around the Te Pohue and Te Haroto areas - marking the first birthday of a child and the next intended stop to visit a family who had just lost a child.

The time of the crash was put at about 8.45pm, although Mr McVicar does not discount it might have been a little earlier.

Others less familiar with the area may have seen the hole in the bridge before he and his family did but might not have realised it had only just happened.

It was thought the bus, which had a raised accommodation platform built into the rear several years earlier, was hot-wired by one of the group and driven. Whoever was at the wheel was unlikely to have had any experience with such a vehicle, which appeared to have become out-of control as it headed north and down an incline towards the bridge.

Marks of almost 60m revealed it had "yawled" along the bridge, before the rear swung around, and the bus crashed through the barrier.

Initial fears were that another three people had been on board but as the Monday morning dawned the picture was clearer. While six of the victims were found in the first 48 hours, two, including the young boy, were missing for several weeks.

In the days afterwards, homes in Maraenui, Tamatea and in Hospital Tce were used for funeral services, and Wayne Moon, who had lost his son and partner in the crash, told Napier newspaper the Daily Telegraph it was another indication of a need for a marae in Napier.

Doc Emery, a teacher at Richmond School, noted similar issues a few months earlier when the community farewelled 15-year-old Gaylene Kiripatea, who died suddenly on June 2 that year. By the end of the year Mr Emery and others had formed a committee, which became the foundation of the Maraenui Marae Establishment Committee. It ultimately built Pukemokimoki Marae, which opened 10 years later.

The tragedy was one of an alarming number of multiple-death crashes on roads on the east coast of the North Island, from East Cape to Wairarapa.

Of what are thought to be the worst 13 crashes (six deaths or more) eight have happened in the region or on the Napier-Taupo highway.

As for Cruz, he appeared little worse for wear at the time, but, cared for by the SPCA, he had a spine operation a few days after the crash.