Woman dies after rocks smash car

The passenger died and the driver escaped with minimal injuries after a rock fall from a cliff above the roadway hit their car on SH3 near Piopio yesterday. Photo / SNPA

A rock fall which smashed into a car, killing an elderly passenger, shunted the vehicle about 20m along the road.

The 76-year-old woman from New Plymouth was on her way to a reunion in Waihi with her sister when the pair's hatchback car was struck by falling rocks on State Highway 3, near Waitomo yesterday.

Piopio Fire Station officer Tama Williams said: "The rocks hit the bottom [of the cliff] and bounced out on to the road. [They] struck the car on the side."

They fell from a bluff about 30m above the road, Mr Williams said.

Emergency workers found the car had been shunted down the road.

"The momentum of the car — it was travelling at road speed — and it bounced off whatever rocks hit it and carried on down the road a bit."

The victim's sister, who was driving, was out of the car when emergency staff arrived, Mr Williams said. "She was taken to hospital in Te Kuiti with some minor cuts and probably a bit of shock."

Her sister died at the scene.

The New Zealand Transport Agency, which has offered its condolences to the family and friends of the woman who died, said SH3 was monitored regularly for rock fall activity because the topography made it prone to instability.

Mr Williams said the incident was the fourth firefighters from Piopio had attended involving rock falls on that part of the road. None had previously struck a vehicle, he said.