KEY POINTS:
Ten Auckland school children - some wearing neck braces or with their arms in slings - waited anxiously at Thames Hospital yesterday for news of a classmate who was more seriously injured after the van they were travelling in crashed near Pauanui.
The 12-year-old girl suffered multiple leg fractures and lacerations in the 8.40am crash involving students from Glenfield Intermediate.
The injured student was later transferred to Waikato Hospital in a stable condition.
The remaining students were treated at Thames Hospital for minor injuries and shock. They suffered bruises, scratches, and sprains but were discharged after lunch.
The group had arrived at the Adventures Within camp at The Glade in Pauanui on Tuesday night.
They set out yesterday morning in three vans, driving in convoy, for a day trip of abseiling and tramping.
The crash happened on the Hikuai Settlement Rd, 6km from the beach resort. One of the vans ran into a bank and then rolled on to its side on the road. Police said the road was wet and the driver appeared to have lost control on a bend.
They did not know whether the children were wearing seatbelts.
Adventures Within director Brett Sutherland said the injured girl was in the rear of the van and her leg had been caught when the van rolled.
Mr Sutherland said other staff had been driving the vans, but he had arrived at the crash scene 10 minutes after it happened.
He said the incident, the first such one in his 13 years running the company, was very upsetting.
Police said a further 56 students from the school were also attending the camp, which school principal Raewyn Matthys-Morris confirmed was now cancelled following the crash.
Speaking outside Thames Hospital and clearly shaken by the incident, Mrs Matthys-Morris told the Herald the entire school was "traumatised" by what had happened.
The incident is the latest in a spate of crashes involving school buses or vans carrying students.
"My issue is to get these little chickens home safely, to their parents, and to support them through this. We have procedures in place and follow them to the letter.
"The children and their family's wellbeing is at the forefront of any decisions we make," she said.
St John was initially told a school bus had crashed and sent three ambulances, from Tairua, Whangamata and Thames.
An advanced paramedic from Waihi also attended and a helicopter was on standby until it was clear no one was seriously injured.
St John spokesman Murray Bannister said seven people suffered moderate to minor injuries, and four had minor injuries.
He did not know the patients' ages but said all were taken to Thames Hospital.
The Fire Service also sent three crews, two from Pauanui and one from Tairua.
Pauanui senior station officer Steve Taylor said the injured girl had large cuts in her foot and knee and her leg appeared broken.
Other children were grazed and one complained of a sore back, while the van's driver had cuts to the head.
"He was in quite a bit of shock when we got there."
Mr Taylor said the road was wet and the van appeared to have lost control coming down a hill on a bend near Duck Creek, notorious for crashes.
The Fire Service attended two or three crashes a year at the spot, he said.
Fred Crawford, owner of Prescotts Garage, where the van was towed, said the hill was treacherous when there was light rain of the type yesterday.
"When that particular rain comes, you can bet your bottom boot that you'll get a car [crash] somewhere on that hill," he said.
Police said they had yet to speak to the driver.
They said speed was not believed to be a factor in the crash.
