By LOUISA CLEAVE
UPDATE - Two parents and their baby were among four people killed in a car crash in Northland last night.
The baby was sitting unrestrained on its mother's knee in the front passenger seat, said police.
Three other children survived but were flown to Whangarei Hospital, two with critical injuries
and one in a serious condition.
The accident happened about 5.15pm, on a bridge 1km north of Waipapa on State Highway 10.
Police today named those who died as Henare Matene, 30, Toni Porter, 31, and their one-year-old baby daughter Hokianga Matene. They had been travelling south.
Police said it appeared that a southbound Toyota Corona carrying the Kaikohe family crossed the centre line on a bend, hitting a northbound Opel Vectra head-on.
The male driver of the northbound Opel, Maaka Taurua, 17, also died and two adult passengers were seriously injured.
They were taken to the Bay of Islands Hospital but later transferred to Whangarei.
Police said the children involved in the crash were aged from an infant to a boy aged 6. Late last night, he was flown to Auckland's Starship Hospital with head injuries.
St John Ambulance Northland district operations manager Donna Austin said it was the worst crash scene she had seen in 20 years.
"It was like a war zone."
Kerikeri fire chief Ralph Rodgers, who did not attend the accident, said it had been a shocking experience for staff.
"We've had a couple of members come back having troubles. We have [Fire Service-trained] critical-stress members coming in to have a talk to them."
Mr Rodgers said the firefighters had been particularly affected because children were involved.
The scale of the crash ranks it as bad, though not the worst on New Zealand roads in recent years.
Last year, five people were killed in a three-car collision 30km south of Rotorua on a stretch of road known to locals as "earthquake flat" during heavy rain.
In 2000 a collision between a van and an articulated truck near Clinton, in South Otago, left a family of six dead.
Among the worst road accidents in New Zealand history are:
* 1963: A bus driver and 14 passengers were killed when a bus crashed in mid-Northland.
* 1995: Eight people died when a house bus plunged off the Mohaka Bridge on the Napier-Taupo road.
Inspector Gavin Macdonald of the police northern communications centre said last night an early reconstruction by police had established the Toyota crossed the centre line.
Far North police area commander Inspector Mike Rustbatch said police were speaking to witnesses who had been travelling in other cars.
He said the accident happened in a 100km/h area when the road was dry and traffic light.
It appeared that neither vehicle had been speeding and there was no indication that alcohol was a factor.
More than two hours after the crash, firefighters were still at the scene helping to remove the dead from the vehicles.
Just last month the Land Transport Safety Authority put out a statement urging motorists to buckle up.
The Director of Land Transport, David Wright, said although 94 per cent of people in the front seat wore seatbelts, he found it hard to understand why the figure was not 100 per cent.
"There are some 2.85 million licensed drivers in New Zealand. With 6 per cent of them not buckling up, that is still 170,000 people who are so stubborn that they refuse to take even the most basic step to protect themselves.
"What is it going to take to convince this lot that they are putting their lives on the line for no good reason?
"Do they lack the instinct of self-preservation?" he said
The statement also said that police crash reports showed 94 unrestrained vehicle occupants died in crashes on New Zealand roads last year.
Last night's accident comes just after Transit NZ reduced the speed limit on a nearby 2km section of State Highway 10, north and south of the main turnoff to Kerikeri, and promised extensive trials of measures for other accident black spots.
Two other people died at the weekend in an accident near Huntly in Waikato.
Sergeant Mark Toomey of Huntly said yesterday that the victims of the crash, at 9.45pm on Friday about 2km south of the town, were the 28-year-old woman driver and her passenger, a man aged 25.
- additional reporting: NZPA
By LOUISA CLEAVE
UPDATE - Two parents and their baby were among four people killed in a car crash in Northland last night.
The baby was sitting unrestrained on its mother's knee in the front passenger seat, said police.
Three other children survived but were flown to Whangarei Hospital, two with critical injuries
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.