Vehicle shunted four times in pile-up

Police say the investigation into Friday's fatal pile-up is a complex one that cannot be rushed. Picture / Greg Bowker

One of the drivers in Friday's fatal pile-up on the Southern Motorway in Auckland says his car was shunted four times as cars slammed into one another.

One man died in the nose-to-tail crashes that involved seven cars in the southbound lanes near Takanini. He was Alexis Gordon Michalaros, aged 37, of Mt Eden.

A 21-year-old female hitchhiker who was in the back seat of his white Ford Laser hatchback was one of 14 people injured. She was in a critical condition in hospital last night. A male hitchhiker in the front seat suffered minor injuries.

Anurag Rhode, a 40-year-old courier driver, was taking his parents, who shifted to New Zealand from India in December, for their first trip out of Auckland.

His wife, Alka, a schoolteacher, and their 11-year-old son were also in their Honda Integra for the planned trip to Rotorua and Taupo.

Mr Rhode said he was following the car in front at a safe distance and the traffic in the centre lane, where he was driving, was moving at about 80km/h. He braked when the car in front slowed and when he had almost stopped he was hit from behind by a four-wheel-drive three or four times.

"It was a few seconds - tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk," he said last night.

Mr Rhode's car was shunted to the left and hit the car in front. It was also hit on its front left by a vehicle towing a jet-ski, he said.

Mr Rhode said that after all the vehicles had come to a halt and a crowd of people had gathered, he heard a woman beside the Ford Laser reciting what sounded like Bible verses in the direction of Mr Michalaros. The woman trapped in the back of the car was screaming.

The Ford was the second of several vehicles that crashed, nose-to-tail, behind his car. It was crunched between two four-wheel-drives.

Mr Rhode said the Ford also contained pieces of timber.

He and his wife were left with sore necks and his mother with a sore knee, and none of them slept on Friday night.

Mr Rhode was concerned that despite his waiting at the accident scene with his son and 80-year-old father - his wife went with his mother to Middlemore Hospital - the police did not take a full statement and still had not done so by last night.

Constable Colin Nuttall of the serious crash unit said information was taken from Mr Rhode at the scene and a full statement would be taken.

It was a complex investigation that could not be rushed. Some of the necessary work could not be done during a long weekend.

The unit had also had to attend two other crashes on Friday, he said.

Friday's death was still the holiday weekend's only road fatality by last night, giving police hope that the toll will be below the nine deaths of last Easter.

Road policing spokesman Inspector Dave Parsons appealed to drivers to be calm during today's drive home from holiday.

The long weekend officially ends at 6am tomorrow.