A people-mover filled with children was struck by a car in Kaikohe. Staci Walkley, 11, was in the vehicle with her mum Candice. Eyewitnesses told David Fisher of the minutes of horror that followed the crash.
“Where’s my girl?”
That was the awful scream of Candice Walkley when she realised one of her children was missing among the survivors of the Kaikohe crash.
That missing child was Staci Waireia Walkley, 11. She was found dead, trapped under her parents’ people-mover in the backyard where the vehicle came to rest.
Three other children were taken to hospital and police confirm they know the identities of two teen boys in the car that hit the people-mover. No one has yet been charged in relation to the crash, which happened about 12.40pm on Wednesday.
For Staci and her siblings, it was meant to be a special day. She was being driven home to change out of her school uniform for a visit to her father, Rawiri Walkley.
Suddenly, the people-mover was struck on the passenger side by a white Toyota that had been driven through a signposted compulsory stop.
It did so at such speed that those nearby heard two bangs, they told the Herald. The first was the collision; the next came moments later when the people-mover hit the ground after spinning through the air.
Medina Koni, 53, was doing some washing when she heard the impact. Her home on the corner of Hillcrest and Omapere Rds is across from where the two vehicles came to rest.
She was one of those who heard the two bangs and moved quickly to see what had happened.
“I looked outside and a guy just took off.”
There were two teens – Koni watched them go, as did another eyewitness across the road with a long view down Omapere Rd. That eyewitness, who did not want to be named, watched the teenagers sprinting away, abandoning the white Toyota, which was stuck on a retaining wall.
Koni told the Herald she thought it was just the one car at that stage. The people-mover filled with children had been flung uphill and across a vegetable garden, and was behind a tall fence in the backyard across the road.
Koni waited, partly unsure as to what had happened but also not wanting to be rubbernecking. As she watched, a woman emerged from behind the fence.
Koni remembered the woman – it was Candice Walkley – shouting: “Catch him, he’s taken off down there.”
“The mum was just yelling the whole time, it was just the shock. She’s in a panic,” Koni said.
And then an awful reality hit as children started tumbling out from behind the fence to the roadside, one after another.
“I saw the tamariki,” Koni said – and that was when she realised there was another vehicle involved.
That got Koni moving. The children had moved down from the backyard to the corner of the road, two older ones and two younger ones at first. As she watched, children kept coming out from where the people-mover had come to rest.
One eyewitness reckoned there were seven children in total in the vehicle.
“Some have got grazes and blood on their face. One didn’t and that’s the one I went to hug. Her body was shaking. I went up and put my arms around her,” Koni said.
She thought, if she could just get her arms around that girl and hold her, the shaking would stop.
“The young boy who was sitting on the ground … then he just lay down.”
For a moment, it all seemed to go still – and then another awful reality struck.
“The mum realised one was missing. It didn’t dawn on her for a while there was one missing.”
And then came the scream: “Where’s my girl, my girl?”
Koni drew a breath. “She was under the car.”
By then, people had spilled from the houses around to help. Everyone the Herald interviewed for this story made the point – Kaikohe is a town of community and heart.
Staci hadn’t been missed or seen at that point because in the chaos, it was difficult to see underneath the vehicle.
The call went up to lift the people-mover and those who had come to help tried to lift it. One neighbour sprinted home to get a jack.
“It took so long to access her and then there was the reality she had passed,” said Koni.
When it became clear Staci had died under the vehicle, there was anguish – and along with the pain came anger.
“The rest of the whānau turned up,” Koni recalled.
Some of the arriving whānau set out in cars to look for the teens who had run away. Others stayed with Candice Walkley as first responders arrived.
Just 10 minutes drive away at Ngāwhā prison, just outside Kaikohe, Rawiri Walkley would also soon learn he had lost a child.
It was supposed to be a special day, given his absence from the family home as an inmate awaiting sentencing.
Rawiri is a leader of Man Up in Kaikohe and Candice is involved in Legacy, the women’s movement.
He had been on bail with a defended trial in his future. The Herald was told when he surrendered to Christ through the Destiny Church and Man Up movement, he also surrendered his “not guilty” plea.
His pastor, Eric Edmonds, told the Herald that Walkley’s embrace of his past meant he chose to plead guilty, thereby losing bail to wait in prison until October for sentencing on a number of charges.
His was to be another Man Up redemption story – his guilty plea was acknowledgment of having walked the wrong path.
But that will now be sorely tested as he grieves behind bars, away from a family who lost one member too soon.
Edmonds said a phone call of support from Pastor Hannah Tamaki and the backing of Apostle Brian Tamaki recognised the Walkley whānau’s connection to the church. “She wanted to send condolences to them.”
In the hours after the crash, Candice Walkley kept whānau updated through Facebook while at the bedside of her other children in hospital.
She said shortly after the crash: “We have just lost one of (our) babies. She (is) in peace with our Lord. Staci Waireia Walkley spread her wings today. I’m still trying to take it (in). I’m trying to stay strong for rest of (my) babies …“.
A family member said Staci would return to Kaikohe to lie in state at the Man Up centre at 158 Broadway.
Detective Senior Sergeant Christan Fouhy told the Herald two of the children injured in the crash were in a stable condition at Whangārei Hospital, while another was in a serious but stable condition at Starship children’s hospital.
He also said police were aware of the identities of both youths in the white Toyota.
The Herald had been told police identified one of those boys after his mum took him to get medical treatment for injuries suffered in the crash.
Fouhy confirmed: “One of these young males received injuries as a result of the crash.”
“While we are not seeking anyone in connection with the crash, a key focus for investigators is building a picture about the lead-up to the crash.”
Fouhy said CCTV footage would be studied and police wanted Kaikohe residents with any information – particularly about a white Toyota Mark X – to make contact.
He said police had been told a sedan had been driving “erratically” along De Merle St in Kaikohe and people with more information should call police.
Koni didn’t sleep until about 3.30am. She told the Herald every time she closed her eyes, images of the day would flash through her mind.
“I just couldn’t stop thinking.”
And as she lay there, she heard cars roaring down the road.
“I’m lying there thinking, ‘didn’t you learn anything?’”
David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He joined the Herald in 2004.
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