Whangateau quad bike accident: Steep road narrows after heavy rain, resident says

A section of Ashton Rd at Whangateau, in Auckland's Rodney district. Four people were injured on Saturday when a quad bike slipped down a steep, muddy bank.

By RNZ

A man who lives near the spot where a quad bike carrying four people slipped down a muddy bank yesterday says the road should have been fixed long ago.

A woman in her 40s suffered serious injuries and was winched out after the 50-metre fall at Whangateau, north of Auckland, before being flown to Auckland City Hospital.

Two children had moderate injuries and were taken by ambulance to Starship Hospital. A third child had minor injuries.

Rodney district resident Hugh McKergow said that, over the past year, heavy rains had narrowed Ashton Rd at Whangateau by a few metres in some places.

“All the cars are parked down ... at the bottom [of the road] where it starts to get steep, for quite a long time now,” McKergow said.

“People have been either walking or driving in quad bikes or similar things [to go] up the hill.”

Six houses at the top of the road were inaccessible by car, he said.

McKergow hoped the crash would encourage authorities to prioritise a fix.

“The work that should have been ages ago just hasn’t been done. I hope this will trigger something to happen pretty quickly. They are working on it but it’s not passable by ordinary vehicles.”

Residents were deeply shocked by what happened, he said.