Black weekend on NZ roads

Photo / Hawke's Bay Today

A teenager was clinging to life last night as six crashes in 20 hours left one person dead and 15 needing hospital treatment.

The 18-year-old Raglan resident was flung almost 40m through a windscreen and into a paddock after the crash early yesterday.

The Subaru WRX he was a passenger in was believed to be speeding before losing control on a corner near Kihikihi, Waikato, about 3.30am.

The car, holding five people, rolled several times into a paddock, flinging the 18-year-old and a 16-year-old female from Otorohanga out of the car. Both were backseat passengers and neither was wearing seatbelts.

The 18-year-old was last night critical and the 16-year-old stable in Waikato Hospital.

The car rolled on to land owned by Barry Pothan, who ran outside. "Three people were running around probably in shock," he said. "The other two looked in a pretty bad way."

The driver and two passengers were wearing seatbelts and escaped with minor injuries.

Waikato road policing manager Inspector Leo Tooman said seven people had died in the region this year after being thrown from motor vehicles while not wearing seatbelts.

The weekend's carnage began in Marlborough on Friday evening when a 20-year-old motorcyclist was killed after he crashed into a car and was thrown off his bike.

The incident happened on State Highway 63 in Wairau Valley, 37km southwest of Blenheim, just before 7pm.

Wairau Valley chief fire officer Ian Topp said fire staff administered first aid to the motorcyclist, a Wairau Valley resident, but he died at the scene.

In Wellington, eight people were rushed to hospital after a six-car pile-up on Hutt Rd yesterday. Police Inspector Paul Jermy said one car was speeding before the crash, which happened about 11.30am.

Three cars bore the brunt of the impact - a Ford Falcon, an Audi and an Alfa Romeo. The Herald on Sunday understands the Audi was speeding.

Seven people were taken to Wellington Hospital by ambulance and a woman with moderate facial injuries was taken to Hutt Hospital.

A Wellington Hospital spokesman said a woman in her 50s was critical, two others were stable in the emergency department and one had been admitted to hospital and was stable.

Barbara Glogau was among the injured. Her husband Trevor said she was stable with a broken pelvis but her car was a write-off. "It could have been a lot worse," he said.

Paul Atmore, who lives near the crash site, said: "I heard a massive collision. It was quite unreal really - the sheer noise of it." Atmore said a witness told him the car responsible appeared to be travelling at more than 100km/h in the 60km/h zone.

The other incidents were in the Waikato.

Firefighters had to cut a 16-year-old boy, 37-year-old woman and her 18-month-old child from their vehicles after a head-on smash on Te Pahu Rd, near Hamilton.

Rural vet Caroline Hamilton arrived immediately after the collision and said locals and other drivers, including a retired anaesthetist, helped care for the injured.

Hamilton concentrated on keeping the young man alive. Most of his front teeth had been knocked out on the steering wheel, she said.

"We had to work to keep his airways open and ensure he was still breathing. It was a relief when emergency services arrived."

The 16-year-old was last night in a critical condition in Waikato Hospital and the 37-year-old stable.

A 1-year-old boy was rushed to hospital on Friday night after he was run over in a Hamilton driveway. An ambulance was called to the Dominion Rd home about 7.20pm.

Police refused to give details but the Herald on Sunday has learned a relative, possibly the boy's father, reversed over him.

The incident is being treated as an accident and the toddler was last night stable in Waikato Hospital.

And a pregnant woman was flown to Waikato Hospital by air ambulance after the vehicle she was in rolled off State Highway 3 south of Te Kuiti about 6pm on Friday. She was last night stable in a high-dependency unit.