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Den Thi Baird was killed in a “freak accident” when the car he was in rounded a curve and flipped onto the roof after a large poplar tree fell onto an Otago road.
The accident occurred on State Highway 1 about 30 miles north of Dunedin at 12:09 p.m. Thursday.
Baird, 51, of Waikouaiti died at the scene, while two others were slightly injured.
Baird, who fled the Khmer Rouge regime in his native Cambodia when he was just seven years old, was featured in a Newshub story in 2009 when he reconnected online with his brother, whom he had not seen in three decades.
It is understood that the driver of the car made a detour to avoid the tree on the road before the accident.
Hamish McNeilly / Stuff
Contractors and heavy machinery working nearby helped remove a fallen tree.
“It appears, at this stage, to be a strange accident,” said Inspector Amelia Steel, manager of road surveillance for the southern police district.
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An investigation into the accident was underway, Steel said.
That investigation may include why the tree was not felled by the Waka Kotahi / New Zealand Transport Agency, with its contractors working less than 100 meters across the road to clear trees.
Hamish McNeilly / Stuff
The car rolled over after colliding with a tree that fell onto the road.
Another large tree, just north of the crash site, is understood to have been felled after strong winds hit the area over Labor Day weekend.
An agency spokeswoman said the tree collapse was unrelated to tree removal work done earlier in the week.
There were no obvious environmental factors, such as high winds, that caused the tree to fall, however that and other details would be covered in the police investigation, he said.
The agency’s Otago road maintenance team has a program to identify dangerous trees and remove them throughout the region.
Hamish McNeilly / Stuff
Emergency services at the scene of a fatal car accident on State Highway 1 near Waikouaiti, north of Dunedin.
All poplars in the group of wild trees near where the tree fell will be removed in the next two weeks, the spokeswoman said.
The agency expressed its condolences to those affected by the accident.
A man at the scene of the accident said Things his own vehicle narrowly avoided colliding with the tree.
“One more second, I would have been under [it],” he said.
He said another vehicle was about to be crushed. It had branches under the wheel.
HAMISH MCNEILLY / Things
One person died and two people were injured after a tree fell on Waikouaiti-Waitati Rd on State Highway 1 between Russell and Allen Highways, just south of the small settlement of Otago in Waikouaiti at 12:09 p.m. Thursday.
He didn’t even realize a car was off the road until another motorist raised the alarm.
The car, which ended up face down in a ditch about 50 meters from where the tree fell, was not visible from the road.
“We tried everything we could,” he said.
