Highway toll over Easter holidays: three dead and 13 injured in accidents in New Zealand

The holiday weekend has turned into a tragedy for the loved ones of three people who have died on New Zealand’s roads so far this Easter.

No one died on our roads last Easter, when the country was in a level 4 lockdown to stop the spread of Covid-19.

But with freedom comes a return to the risk of death and injury behind the wheel, as Kiwis roam the country over the four-day holiday weekend.

The first to die was a person who died in an accident involving a truck and a car just before 8 p.m. Thursday on State Highway 27 in Kaihere, in Hauraki.

Three others received moderate injuries, police said.

Eighty minutes later, one person was killed in an accident at SH2 in Mangatāwhiri, north of Hamilton.

And today, one person died at the two-vehicle crash site near Whakamaru, about 50 kilometers north of Taupō, police said.

After the midday accident, which occurred at the intersection of SH30 and SH32, one of the vehicles caught fire.

The person who died was the driver of one of the vehicles.

No one else was injured.

An 80-year-old woman also died Thursday after being hit by a car in the North Shore suburb of Forrest Hill and succumbed to her injuries hours after the 8.20 a.m. incident.

That meant his death was not included in the Easter highway toll because the official holiday period began at 4 p.m. Thursday and ends at 6 a.m.

Other road users have escaped the holiday weekend accidents alive, but are now beginning to recover from their injuries.

Among them are three ambulance officers and a fourth person after an accident between an ambulance and a utility vehicle towing a boat off Auckland’s north shore today.

The ambulance was on its way to a patient and was under lights and sirens at the time of the accident, said St John’s Territory Manager Andrew Everiss.

The ute wedged the emergency vehicle out of the air after hitting the driver’s side.

The ambulance officers were taken to North Shore Hospital with moderate and minor injuries, and the person in the ute had minor injuries, after all four were evaluated by additional ambulance teams, Everiss said.

A second ambulance was dispatched to the initial patient after the accident, who was on Constellation Drive in Rosedale at 12:15 p.m. M.

Support was being provided to those involved, and St John was working with the police and had started his own investigation into the incident.

Five people were also injured, one seriously, after an accident involving two vehicles in Athenree Gorge, north of Tauranga, just before 11 a.m. today.

The seriously injured person was airlifted to Thames Hospital. The other four suffered only minor injuries.

One person is in serious condition tonight after a single vehicle accident on Taipo Rd, Teschemakers, just before 7pm. A rescue helicopter took the occupant of the car to hospital from the crash site, 14 kilometers southwest of Oamaru.

Hours after the long weekend, police were already warning motorists heading on vacation to “take it easy.”

“We urge motorists to be patient and not take unnecessary risks.”