Bereaved families are “distraught” and shocked after a vehicle allegedly “ripped through” a Rotorua cemetery, damaging headstones and bowling over memorial items.
One visitor described the sight of the damage as “absolutely awful”.
Police were called to reports of damage to the cemetery on Sala St about 9am on Monday.
Rotorua Crematorium and Cemetery supervisor Tuveina King said it appeared, based on the tyre tracks and damage left behind,that the vehicle had “bowled over” plaques, smashed ornaments and “ripped through” the cemetery’s grass area.
The vehicle allegedly drove from the main road and “zig-zagged over three blocks” of headstones, he said.
Around 20 headstones will need to be reglued. Photo / Supplied
One cracked headstone needed replacing, while others would be repolished by a stonemason.
“Thankfully, because the headstones are wedge-shaped [the vehicle] has gone up and over them. Quite a few have been moved but are still intact.”
King said they were unable to reglue headstones in the rain, but they were “getting stuck into work” now the weather had cleared. The cemetery team would also be removing smashed ornaments and reinstating the grass.
Headstones and ornaments have been damaged. Photo / Andrew Warner
“Now we have fine weather we will be going through individual blocks and assessing damage on plaques. The ones in good condition will be glued back down as soon as possible,” he said.
“We’ll be putting things back as best as we can to how it was before.”
King said the vehicle’s tyre had been pierced by a tree stump which he said was “fortunate” as it stopped it from causing further damage.
“It was going in the direction of the burial site where there are a lot more headstones. It was very fortunate the tree stump stopped [the vehicle] from going any further.”
Rotorua resident Carol Hardie said she went to the cemetery on Wednesday morning - the one-year anniversary of her aunt’s death - and noticed an “upset and distraught” elderly woman in tears.
She then noticed the tyre marks on the grass and smashed ornaments at the site, describing the scene as “absolutely awful”.
Hardie said luckily her aunt’s headstone was left unscathed, but her nephew’s had been scratched. She picked up the broken ornaments around her nephew’s headstone.
