Remembering New Zealand's deadliest crashes

Wednesday, 27 June 2018

A newborn baby and five adults have been killed in a two-car crash on State Highway 3 in South Taranaki. It is one of the deadliest incidents on New Zealand's roads - but not the worst.

The crash is just the ninth with five or more fatalities since the turn of the century and the worst since five kiwifruit packers were killed when their car was hit by a logging truck near Katikati in the Bay of Plenty.

Locals from Rewiti mourn the victims of the Brynderwyn bus crash in 1963.

The worst crash of recent times was in May 2005, when nine people were killed near Morrinsville when a tourist bus crossed the centre line and collided with a Freight Lines truck.

The worst road smash in New Zealand was in Northland in February, 1963, when a bus carrying 35 passengers home from seeing the Queen at Waitangi crashed over a 30m slope, killing 15 people. A brakes failure caused the bus to careen down a cliff off the Brynderwyn hills.

Five Kiwifruit packers have been killed after smashing into a vehicle at a highway intersection.

* When will NZ change its entitled attitude to driving?**

The kiwifruit packhouse where the five men has clocked out and were heading home to Katikati for the night when the driver pulled onto State Highway 2 where the crash happened. The victims were father and son, Koli Vaipulu (son) and Sitiveni Vaipulu (father), Halani Fine, Sione Teulaka, and Samuela Taukatelata.

Wednesday's crash near Waverley where six people died brought the death toll 187 for the year so far and officials have warned that the 2018 total is likely to break 400. Last year at the same time, 183 lives had been lost.

Since 2000 there have been three other crashes on State Highway 3 near Waverley.

In December 2000, a 40-year-old man and his 15-year-old son died after a head-on crash on SH3, north of the small South Taranaki town. The father was killed in the crash and the teenager died in Wellington Hospital later.

In January 2002, an Intercity bus driver and a passenger died when the bus rolled near the Whenuakura Hill on SH3, north of Waverley.

The most recent crash on that highway occurred in November last year when a man died after a collision between a car and milk tanker about three kilometres south of Waverley, near the intersection of SH3 and Moumahaki Rd. The tanker driver was unhurt but traumatised and Troy Maxwell, 26, of Whanganui lost his life.