Labor Day weekend toll rises to eight after the death of a motorcyclist

The death of a man after a motorcycle accident on Saturday morning brought the number of tolls on Labor Day weekend to eight, the highest in more than a decade.

Police confirmed Thursday afternoon that a man had died at Waikato Hospital, where he was transferred Saturday after a motorcycle accident on Desert Road, State Highway 1, near Tūrangi.

The investigation into the cause of the accident was ongoing.

His death brings the death toll on Labor Day weekend to eight, the highest since 2009, when nine people died, and equal to 2010 and 2011.

This year’s toll included a woman who crashed on her mountain bike on Luck at Last Rd, Maungatautari,

The cyclist, a 45-year-old Hamilton woman, fell on her head on a bicycle on a tarred road and sustained a serious head injury, the Waikato-based Greenlea rescue helicopter said.

The other road deaths over the weekend included one person who was killed in an accident in Horowhenua on Sunday night, and another who died when a car passed through SH35 in Tikitiki, East Cape, on Sunday afternoon.

A man who died in an accident on the Tekapo-Twizel highway on Saturday was named Che Tekapa Hogg, 42, of Auckland.

Kelly Eugene Baker, 36, was killed in an accident in Gisborne early Saturday morning and another person was killed in an accident the same day in Whanganui.

A motorcyclist died in Upper Hutt on Friday.

Acting Superintendent Gini Welch, who is the national road watchdog manager, told RNZ this week that traffic volume was commonly high on long weekends, but on Friday it was “significantly higher” than it had been.

“Most of the serious and fatal accidents that occurred this weekend occurred in areas of 100 km / h, and that is consistent with people traveling.

“It is deeply distressing, there are too many people dying and seriously injured on our roads and this weekend has been another example of that. Sadly, it is not unusual.”

Welch said he didn’t think it was directly related to the pandemic or the lockdown, but people wanted to take advantage of the warmer weather.

Police will seek to learn the lessons from this year’s crashes.

“We also know that most crashes occur as a result of speed, as a result of distracted driving, impaired, and unfortunately, many people are still not wearing their seat belts,” Welch said.

One of many crashes this weekend involved at least a dozen people who were injured in a three-car crash on SH5, northeast of Taupō.

The stretch of highway has been described by police as one of the deadliest in the country.

Those involved suffered moderate to severe injuries.

It comes less than fifteen days after a terrorist crash between a van and a truck killed temporary worker Tino Tagiilima.

The number of people killed on our roads so far this year is 127, up from 136 at this time last year and the lowest since 2015, however it is likely influenced by the Covid-19-induced lockdown.

In April, at the height of the closure, nine people were killed on the roads, up from 45 the previous year.