Spate of summer beach accidents

A woman has been airlifted to hospital with a badly broken arm after a buggy accident on Ninety Mile Beach.

The roll-over, which occurred about 4km north of Ahipara's Kaka St ramp on Monday, was the Far North's third serious accident in a week involving a quad bike or buggy on the beach.

It is understood two women had been doing donuts on the beach in the two-seater buggy when it rolled about 8.30pm, leaving one with a compound fracture of the arm.

Volunteers from the Ahipara Fire Brigade, who were first on the scene in a four-wheel-drive fire truck, applied first aid until St John medics arrived.

The Northland Electricity Rescue Helicopter flew her to Whangarei Hospital for surgery.

Kaitaia deputy fire chief Craig Rogers said the injured woman was not trapped but was complaining of a sore neck and back. As a precaution, firefighters used the jaws of life to cut off the buggy's roll cage so she could be removed without risking any possible spinal injury.

Just a day earlier, the rescue helicopter flew to a coastal campsite near Mitimiti, North Hokianga, where a teenage boy suffered back injuries in a quad bike accident. He was also airlifted to Whangarei Hospital.

Earlier that day, a woman hurt herself while dune boarding at Te Paki dunes during a tourist excursion.

Her injuries were not initially regarded as serious but emergency services were called when her pain intensified later that morning. She was collected from the Cape Reinga car park and flown to Kaitaia Hospital.

A few days earlier, on Christmas Eve, the Ahipara and Kaitaia fire brigades were called to another accident where a man is thought to have misjudged a jump on a sports quad in dunes near Tauroa Pt.

He suffered back injuries and, due to the site's inaccessibility, was airlifted to Whangarei Hospital. St John medics were transported to the accident scene by four-wheel-drive fire engine and quad bike.

Mr Rogers said the summer holidays always brought a spate of motorbike, quad and buggy injuries on the district's beaches.

The spate of beach accidents added to an already busy week for the rescue helicopter.

Other missions include the search for a teenage boy swept out to sea at Ninety Mile Beach, the rescue of three fishermen from a rock off the Karikari Peninsula after their boat capsized, a boy who broke a leg in a fall at Whangaruru, a burns victim flown to Middlemore Hospital, and a woman who was thrown from her horse at Kaihu, north of Dargaville, on Monday morning.