Death in crash near school

THE scene of a fatal crash at Opiki earlier this week.

One person died and a man in his 60s was taken to Palmerston North Hospital with critical injuries following a collision between a car and a truck on Opiki Road on Tuesday.

The crash was just 200m north of Opiki School on State Highway 56 just before noon.

Both lanes of Opiki Road were closed and diversions in place from State Highway 56 and Rangiotu Road, State Highway 1, through Foxton to State Highway 57 at Shannon, not reopening until after 6pm.

Opiki School principal Tracey Gurney said the whole school, 129 pupils aged five to 13, were in the community hall at the time, practising for the evening's prizegiving.

The hall, on the highway, was about 100m from the fatal collision. Mrs Gurney said teachers heard the noise from the crash.

"We just closed the doors and carried on. As we left we were walking in the opposite direction, thankfully. Some of the children saw the emergency services but luckily nothing of the crash itself."

She said a parent at the Opiki Playcentre closer to the crash rushed out and was directing traffic until emergency services arrived.

The school received "floods" of phone calls from parents and other members of the community worried the crash may have involved a local person, and if they would be able to get to the prizegiving, Mrs Gurney said. The prizegiving went ahead as planned at 6pm but Mrs Gurney said one of the trailer units from the crash was still on site and moved later that evening.

"The whole community has been indirectly affected by the accident and we had a moment at the start of the prizegiving and reflected on the poor families affected."

She said the children were naturally curious and wanted to know what was going on but the prizegiving helped shift their focus. The speed limit along that stretch of road was reduced from 100kmh to 80kmh in 2011, reducing the number of accidents.

"[Drivers are] coming down a long straight onto a particularly windy piece of road and they are supposed to reduce their speed coming past the school," said Mrs Gurney.

At the time of going to print, the injured man in his 60s was still in intensive care but stable.