Missile 'like bullet' sparks road tragedy

By MONIQUE DEVEREUX and GREGG WYCHERLEY

Graeme Williams was heading into Auckland on the Southern Motorway when he saw a missile crash into the ute in front.

"It just came out of nowhere, like a bullet."

What happened next was the stuff of a driver's nightmare.

The missile - part of a driveshaft from a truck - decapitated the ute's driver, 32-year-old Pukekohe plasterer John Edward Tavinor, known as Eddie, a father of two who was just weeks away from the birth of another child.

Mr Williams, who was on his way to Parnell to a building job, saw the section of driveshaft fly across the motorway barrier into the oncoming traffic.

"I managed to brake enough to avoid it but I couldn't see the guy in the ute.

"I thought he must have been knocked out."

Mr Williams tailed the 1990 Mazda ute to make sure it did not go out of control and hit other cars.

"It went up on the median strip eight or nine times before it stopped. I raced over to see if he was okay. He wasn't.



"It could so easily have been me. I'd like to go to the guy's funeral."

Mr Tavinor, whose partner, Michelle, is eight months pregnant, was driving north on the motorway between the Mt Wellington and Penrose off-ramps about 10.30 am when the incident occurred.

The driveshaft of an articulated Mitsubishi truck, travelling south, disintegrated.

As it hit the ground, it smashed apart and a knuckle from the universal joint connecting the driveshaft to the gearbox, flicked into the air and hurtled across into the northbound lane.

The knuckle - about a third of a metre long and weighing about 5kg - smashed through the front windscreen of the ute, killing Mr Tavinor before flying out the back window.

Two other cars ran over the driveshaft knuckle. They had to be towed away.

In the southbound lanes the truck, from Auckland firm Container Swinglift Services, came to a stop.

Cars swerved to miss it and one ran over the remaining pieces of the driveshaft, suffering a flat tyre and a broken windscreen.

Traffic slowed to a crawl on both sides of the motorway for almost four hours as police cleared the accident sites.

Sergeant Brian Locke, of the police commercial vehicle unit, described the incident as a "freak, tragic accident."

Police taped a white sheet across the shattered windscreen of Mr Tavinor's ute as they waited for his body to be removed.

They later used fingerprints to identify the body.

Last night, the father of Mr Tavinor's partner, Michelle, spoke about the dead man.

Trevor Foord, of Panmure, said the pair had been sweethearts since they met when she was at high school in Henderson.

"Eddie was a real nice guy. He loved his music. He used to play in a band."

Sergeant Locke said the roadworthiness of the truck did not "appear to be relevant" to the accident.

The truck had a current six-month certificate of fitness and was due for retesting next week.

"There are one or two loose ends that we need to tie up but at this stage it looks like one of those freak, tragic accidents that just happen."

Automobile Association technical adviser Alan Chesterman said it was difficult to tell what would have happened to the driveshaft to make it disintegrate.

He said if the truck was looked after and serviced regularly "it would be unlikely to happen."

Land Transport Safety Authority officials, independent engineers and Mitsubishi will inspect the truck today.

Police say it is too early to know if any charges will be laid.