Vanuatan killed in crash on way home

A seasonal kiwifruit worker was killed in a road crash on her way to fly home from Auckland to Vanuatu.

The van she was travelling in collided with a furniture truck on the way to Auckland Airport.

Her vehicle was part of a convoy of four vans carrying 17 people, many of whom had been working in the Te Puke Satara packhouse for the past six months.

Waikato Police were yesterday working with Interpol to find and notify the 58-year-old dead woman's family of the collision on State Highway 2 outside Ngatea, 23km southwest of Thames, about 7.20am yesterday.

The other four people in the Toyota Emina in which the woman was riding were taken to Thames hospital.

A 41-year-old woman was later transferred to Waikato Hospital's emergency department with serious injuries.

Police said the crash happened after the lead vehicle in the group passed a furniture truck on a straight piece of road.

The second vehicle, in which the dead woman was a back-seat passenger, tried to do the same as its driver approached a 95km/h corner.

With oncoming traffic approaching, the driver swerved back into the northbound lane but the rear of the vehicle clipped the truck.

The van then rolled several times and landed upright in a paddock. Sergeant Jim Corbett, of the Thames strategic traffic unit, said the van was extensively damaged and the truck had minor damage.

Police said they had had trouble trying to contact the woman's family but hoped to name her today.

SH2 at the Bush Rd intersection was closed for about four hours as the Waikato police serious crash unit investigated.

Mr Corbett appealed for witnesses. He said a brown car had been seen travelling in the opposite direction and its occupants might have information.

Satara territory manager Joe Brophy said most of the Vanuatuans the company employed came from Tanna Island which was "pretty third world". He added: "They make enough in six months for their family to keep them going for two years."

The accident was the second fatal crash yesterday.

Nineteen-year-old Ezra Fluerty died after the car he was a passenger in did not take a slight bend on Goldfinch St in Ohakune and hit a lamp-post and raised stone-edged garden about 3.10am.

A 20-year-old male passenger was yesterday in a critical condition in Whanganui Hospital and a 19-year-old male was in a stable condition.

The 18-year-old male driver had minor injuries and has been charged with drink-driving and possession of cannabis.