The three people who died in a car that plunged off a highway and into a creek in southwest Auckland have been identified as a local woman, her young daughter and her niece.
Frances (Sesi) Latu-Vailea, daughter Oneahi Vailea, and niece Marly Tulua were killed when the car they were in crashed on Masters Rd near Waiuku on Tuesday afternoon. All were found dead at the scene.
Latu-Vailea’s widower, Amanaki Vailea, was “going through it”, his brother told the Herald. Vailea, who moved from Tonga with his family about 2002, was in Pukekohe with his late wife’s parents when the Herald visited him.
Flowers had been left at the scene on Wednesday morning, and the man who was first to come across the crash recounted to the Herald what he found, saying the car was flipped upside down and almost entirely submerged in the creek. He said he quickly realised there was little he could do.
Tributes have been left on social media from Latu-Vailea’s family, friends and coworkers.
She was described as a doting mum and helpful friend who loved life and those close to her.
“Why have you gone so soon?” one family member wrote.
According to social media posts, Latu-Vailea worked as a registrar in the South Auckland courts and was beloved by her colleagues.
The two children have been described as bubbly and smiley tots, curious and full of love, whose lives were taken much too soon.
Police Inspector Jared Pirret said Latu-Vailea’s family had asked police to convey a message on their behalf, saying they needed privacy at this time.
“They are grieving and are coming to terms with this life-altering event. They are receiving an overwhelming amount of contact from ... extended family and well-wishers.”
The first person on the triple-fatal crash scene in Waiuku, Billy McLean, was working in his shed when he heard a faint sound from the road outside.
He thought something must have fallen off a truck. When he walked down his long driveway to check out the noise, he worried that his friend, whom he was expecting over, might have crashed.
“That’s when I saw the car had fallen into the water and turned upside down,” McLean told the Herald.
He doubted the car was speeding. He’d seen and heard car crashes before, and he said yesterday’s did not make anywhere near the same amount of noise.
“It was very subtle. My wife and kids were inside [the house]. They heard nothing. I had the shed door open, and I heard no revving engine, no squealing brakes, no nothing.
“I thought something had fallen off a truck, so I ran down to make sure the road was clear.
“I had a visitor who was due at that time, and I actually thought, ‘It might be her, she’s just missed the driveway and dropped into that deep spot there.
“But if she had just been there a minute sooner …”
McLean then recounted what he saw at the end of his drive.
“You just go straight into ‘f***ing-do-something-mode’. It was pretty quick for me to realise I couldn’t do anything.
“There was a car, probably about the same size as mine…” He pointed out his truck.
“There was that much of it sticking out of the mud,” he said, showing about 40cm of the car that he found above water.
“So I went up to about my elbow and found the door handle. And I suppose, well …” He said it appeared the car had hit a culvert on one side of his drive, flown over, and then fallen in.
“And it’s not the first vehicle that’s gone in there.
“They’re 90% fatal, but nothing seems to happen. There needs to be a change to the road here.”
McLean said he was anxious about himself, his friends and his neighbours travelling along the road, and especially when pulling out on to it from his driveway.
“Now I and all my friends and family are risking our lives on a potential fatal crash just pulling out from that drive.
“I’ve been nervous ever since we lost [a neighbour to a crash when he pulled out on to the same road].”
McLean described the problem with the road: It was narrow and without a shoulder in many places. It was also bumpy, and what shoulder did exist was very rough.
“There’s just no margin for error.”
Earlier, a woman living nearby said she had seen another family lose a loved one in the same place to a crash, and she dreads having to watch the next.
“They should have done something after the first death two years ago. But all they did was put the little red reflectors on the road there. So that it was more visible at nighttime.
“But like the first accident happened, like I think it was something like 2.00 in the afternoon. This one happened at 3.30 in the afternoon. It was still plenty of light there.”
A spokesperson for the Waikato District Council confirmed it did not share responsibility for the road with Auckland, even though it crossed the border. The spokesperson said the road was scheduled for maintenance in the 2026-2027 season, and the council had not received any formal complaints since 2020.
“The only crash reported was the fatal crash in 2023 that occurred 120m east of this crash site.
“There have not been any other crashes reported at this site within the last five years.”
They said once the crash investigation was completed by police, the council would consider and respond to any actions or recommendations that arose.
Pirret said the crash was “a confronting scene”.
“All emergency services deployed to the scene and worked together to carry out a rescue operation, and we acknowledge their professionalism.”
Anyone who might have information to assist the police investigation can update them online or call 105 using the reference number 250715/829.
Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers business, breaking news and local stories from Tāmaki Makaurau. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.
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