One dead after serious crash on Waikato Expressway, State Highway 1 now reopened at Hampton Downs

A truckie driving at 90km/h was left feeling like he was “standing still” as a motorist - later killed when he was struck by a vehicle after running from his crashed SUV on the Waikato Expressway - sped past between the left hand lane and the “cheesecutter” barrier.

Dylan Harris was among several motorists stunned by the incident, which culminated in a man being given CPR - first by bystanders, then first responders - on the road in pouring rain, and police closing lanes in both directions on the busy motorway.

“I was heading north and had just gone past Ōhinewai, and out of nowhere this car comes up the inside”, Harris told the Herald.

“I’m in a truck and trailer - it’s 23.5 metres long - and there’s no one in the right hand lane, there’s actually no cars for ages. And he just comes flying up the left hand side.

“I’m going 90km/h and he passed me like I was standing still … his speed was incredible.

“By the time I was gathering my thoughts he was already 100 metres up the road doing the same thing to another car and truck.”

Police confirmed just before 5pm a person had died after the midday crash on SH1 near Hampton Downs.

“A car was travelling north when it is believed to have rear ended a northbound truck.

“One of the occupants of the car exited the vehicle and was struck by another vehicle travelling in the southbound lane. Despite the best efforts of emergency services, the person died at the scene.”

The Serious Crash Unit completed a scene examination which saw both directions of the road closed closed until 5.40pm.

FINAL UPDATE - 5:40PM
All lanes (in both directions) are OPEN on State Highway 1 between Hampton Downs Rd Interchange. Thank you for your patience this afternoon. Allow extra time for delays in the area to ease. ^JF https://t.co/XUa6j5MLYM

— NZ Transport Agency - Auckland & Northland (@nztaaklnth) June 14, 2024

Driving trucks for around 15 years, including oversize jobs such as house moves at night, he’d seen his share of bad driving, Harris said.

But this motorist was “next level”, he said.

“I’ve seen police chases before where someone’s trying to get away but they still will stay on the [actual] road … and I know he did [the same thing] several times because all the truckies were talking on the CB [radio] saying, ‘What the hell’s going on here?’”

Emergency services at the serious crash near Hampton Downs. Photo / NZME

Other motorists described similar experiences, and the heartbreaking end.

A woman travelling north was passed, also between the left lane and the “cheese cutter” barrier, by a black SUV being driven at speeds of “well over 120km an hour”, she said.

“He was just screaming past everybody. He’d created a third lane [on the two-lane Expressway] and was overtaking people. All the stones were flying up on our cars.”

The vehicle then went out of her sight, but as she approached the overbridge just south of Hampton Downs, she saw the man had crashed, the woman said.

“He crashed his car, how I don’t know … then I saw him run across to the other side, [from] the northbound lanes into the southbound lanes. I didn’t see the impact, because I was driving … but I saw him face down on the road.”

She and half a dozen others stopped to help, with the woman putting a blanket over the man - aged in his 20s or 30s and clothed, but with only socks on his feet - before another woman started CPR.

The woman was then joined by a man who “seemed to know what he was doing”, as others tried to shelter them from the rain using umbrellas.

“We were all standing around trying to keep the rain off him. We did what we could … it wasn’t very nice … it’s not what you want to see on a Friday afternoon.

“It’s crazy.”

Another passerby told her the man had been struck in the southbound lanes by a vehicle towing dirt bikes.

No one else was in the dead man’s car, she said.

She left soon after firefighters arrived to take over, with other motorists witnessing the tragic scene as first responders continued efforts to save the man’s life.

One motorist described heartbreaking scenes as a first responder on his knees gave CPR to the injured man in the pouring rain in the middle of the southbound lanes of the Expressway.

The woman driving north towards Pōkeno told the Herald she saw a smashed up black SUV in the northbound lanes and an injured man being attended to by first responders.

“[I could see] police and emergency services trying to save him. The rain was coming down hard and they were huddled under umbrellas.

“He was in the middle of the motorway, lying there lifeless. There were six to eight police and a person doing CPR in a yellow coat – he was over the man trying to save him with people all around.

“There were one or two police cars on site already, and traffic was already at a standstill. There was debris all over the northbound lane.”

Volunteer crews were sent from Te Kauwhata, Pōkeno and Huntly brigades, Fire and Emergency Northern Communications shift manager Carren Larking said.

St John Ambulance sent an ambulance and a rapid response vehicle, a spokeswoman said.

Emergency services at the scene of a two vehicle crash on the Waikato Expressway at Hampton Downs. Police say the northbound lanes are blocked.

The aftermath was “terribly traumatic” to see, the woman told the Herald.

“I phoned my husband in tears, and telling him I love him. Seeing something like that, you just think, ‘Be safe, people’. If you’re 10 or 15 minutes late, it doesn’t matter.

“Tonight I’m going to be cuddling my children extra hard, and thanking my blessings I got home. It’s such an understated blessing to get home safe.”

Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.