The tragic events of the weekend are a reminder - if one was needed - that life can change in an instant.
A 10-year-old girl, apparently enjoying the weekend with her family one second, gone the next. It's too early for police to know the cause of the collision betweena motorcycle and the girl, near Lake Rotoma on Sunday night, but at this stage police say there was no indication it was anything other than a terrible accident.
It seems trite to say, but perhaps that's the scariest thing. No matter what parents and caregivers do to keep their kids safe, accidents still happen.
As we report today, it wasn't a good holiday weekend on our region's roads. As of last night there had been three fatalities across New Zealand in the Labour Weekend holiday period. Two were in "our patch".
The tragedy at Rotoma and a 75-year-old Tokoroa woman who died in a crash near Lichfield on Friday. Her family and friends too will be grieving her, their lives also changed forever.
As Kiwis we love to travel, to get away to the beach or the lake, to visit friends and family on our long weekends and holidays. It's a small country, so most opt to drive. No matter what police and road safety organisations do to try to prevent accidents, with so many cars on the road, inevitably crashes happen.
As individuals all we can do is take responsibility for our own driving. Driving within the speed limit, not driving while tired, driving to the conditions and not driving under the influence. After that we can only trust others are doing the same while being aware they may not be.
Finally, acknowledgment must go to our region's emergency services. As well as the fatalities, there were a number of crashes and emergencies that kept our police, fire service, ambulance and rescue helicopter staff flat out.
