'Longstanding' Scouts NZ member one of eight killed in crash
Monday, 29 April 2019
A 'longstanding' member of Scouts NZ has been confirmed as one of eight people killed in a crash near Taupō.
Emergency services were alerted to the crash between an SUV and a van on State Highway 1 near the intersection at Ohakuri Rd on Sunday morning.
A 9-year-old boy who had been travelling in the van, the sole survivor of the crash, was flown to Waikato Hospital with critical injuries.
He was stable on a ward on Monday morning, a Waikato District Health Board spokeswoman confirmed.
READ MORE: Eight killed in two-vehicle crash near Taupō
The driver of the SUV had been travelling alone in a Scouts NZ SUV from Hamilton to Palmerston North, Scouts NZ chief executive Joshua Tabor said on Monday.
She had attended a dinner in Waitomo for work on Saturday night.
The organisation was 'coming to grips' with the tragedy, Tabor said.
The woman had worked both as a volunteer and an employee and was 'very well known' throughout the Scouts NZ community, Tabor said.
Tabor had spent the previous evening with her family and the organisation were committed to supporting them, he said.
Staff were being offered support, too.
Taupō District Mayor David Trewavas told TVNZ the crash was 'absolutely devastating'.
'What do you do? What do you say? How to you help?' Trewavas said.
He wasn't sure whether those killed were locals.
'Anecdotally, stories are going around that they are Kiwis, but nothing confirmed obviously,' he told TVNZ.
Police were said in a late briefing last night, he said, and that it could be two or three days before they can release names of those killed.
It wasn't a particularly bad stretch of road, Trewavas said.
While an investigation was under way, Inspector Brent Crowe said it was understood a southbound and northbound vehicle had collided head-on.
An identification process was underway, but it could be a 'number of days' before that was complete, Crowe said on Monday morning.
'We're dealing with a significant number here an it's obviously going to take a little but longer than it otherwise would.'
'We want to give it a period of time before we release any names to ensure there are no surprises for some of the extended whānau.'
It was too early to say whether any children were among the victims, he said.
'We can't give that information at this stage until the reconciliation has been completed and the bodies have been returned to the family.'
While the causes of the crash were unclear, wet roads were an added risk, Crowe said.
'We're coming into a change of season from a really dry and hot summer to intermittent showers and the roads are wet. So the overriding message is drive to the conditions, really.'
From the scene on Sunday, Crowe said describing the scene as 'a complete tragedy would be an understatement'.
'Our main priority, our main focus at the moment is to ensure we extract the deceased, look after the deceased and take care of them for their families.'