A weekend of road carnage in Wairarapa left one person dead, two in intensive care and others in hospital.
Tinging the tragedy with further sadness was the fact the death took place in the South Wairarapa region already reeling from the disappearance of six-year-old Featherston girl Coral Burrows.
A man in his
late teens died en route to Masterton Hospital after his car failed to negotiate a bridge and went into a stream on the Martinborough-Pirinoa Road just after 11am yesterday.
He suffered multiple trauma and the Martinborough Ambulance crew and a passing doctor gave aid but the man's condition deteriorated rapidly, emergency services said.
His name has not yet been given as police are trying to contact his next of kin.
At about the same time, a four-wheel-drive vehicle and a car collided at the corner of State Highway 53, Kahutara Road and No 1 Line in Featherston.
The three occupants of the car, a Ford Laser station wagon, were not wearing seatbelts and were thrown from the car.
A Martinborough man, 19, suffered life-threatening injuries including internal bleeding, arm and leg fractures, spinal pain and head injuries and was taken by Life Flight helicopter to Wellington Hospital. The other two young male occupants were taken to Wellington by ambulance with critical injuries.
There were four occupants in the late-model Jeep Cherokee, two of whom are listed as being in a critical condition and one serious. The driver sustained moderate injuries.
Masterton Senior Sergeant Warwick Burr said a woman mowing lawns was lucky not to be injured when the cars brought down a power pole.
"We have a lot of these accidents but they consistently come back to those contributing factors - speed, alcohol and restraints (seatbelts)."
Farther north, a man has had his licence suspended after refusing a blood alcohol test when his vehicle hit a bank at 3am on Saturday morning. He had been travelling on the Castlepoint-Masterton Road about 20km from Masterton and was taken to Masterton Hospital.
- WAIRARAPA TIMES-AGE (MASTERTON)
