Wairarapa crash toll climbs

The crash count on State Highway 2 north of Masterton continues to climb, with a four-wheel-drive crunching into a bank on Mt Bruce yesterday - but this time a severe frost was the underlying reason.
Three of four people in the vehicle were taken to Wairarapa Hospital to be checked out, although police on the scene said there were no major injuries.
The driver apparently lost control when the Toyota hit a section of road on the Masterton side of Mt Bruce, a stretch notorious for becoming slippery when frost affected.
The crash happened only a few hundred metres from where a campervan smashed into a rock- face nine days earlier, killing the driver, Horihau Simon, 47, of Northland, and leaving his 10-year-old son with minor injuries.
Four days earlier, a crash on the other side of Eketahuna claimed the life of passenger Tom Morison, 19, of Masterton and badly injured car driver Tyler Murphy, also 19.
Yesterday's crash brought a contingent of police to the scene just after 6.30am and, as roading contractors were called in to put grit on the icy surface, police slowed traffic to a crawl, warning drivers of the dangers ahead.
The southern side of Mt Bruce is recognised as one of the district's blackspots when it comes to hazardous winter driving, with heavy frosts and on occasions black ice.
Black ice is a thin sheet of ice that is much more difficult to see than frost.
It is transparent and takes on the colour of the surface on which it rests, for example a bitumen roadway.
Yesterday's freeze was a hit and miss affair, with land immediately beneath the Tararua foothills escaping frost. But within a kilometre or so further into the valley the frost took on a real bite.
For Masterton, it was a case of two consecutive frosty mornings - the harshest weather so far this winter. MetService forecaster Mickey Malivuk said the reading in town was -2.1C and this tied in with readings taken at Solway by Harvest Electronics that recorded -2.2C.
Those readings are a far cry from what weather forecasters consider to be severe frosts, a term used only when the severity of ground frost reaches -6C or more. But that was cold comfort to Wairarapa people yesterday whose car windows were covered by ice and whose waterpipes were at risk.