Taupō crash that killed eight, third-equal deadliest on New Zealand roads
Monday, 29 April 2019
The crash that killed eight people north of Taupō on Sunday was the third-equal deadliest on New Zealand's roads.
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 was the sole survivor of the crash. The other car was carrying a 'longstanding' member of Scouts NZ, who also died.
The deadliest was a bus crash in the Brynderwyn hills, south of Whangarei, on February 7, 1963 in which 15 of the 36 people on board died.
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The bus was on its way back to Auckland from Waitangi Day celebrations at Waitangi, which had been attended by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, when its brakes failed. The vehicle plummeted down a sheer cliff face.
The 15 deaths also made the day the deadliest 24-hour period on the country's roads. The second deadliest 24-hour period was September 7, 1986 when 14 people died. There have been three 24-hour periods in which 11 people died, and six in which 10 people died.
The second deadliest single incident crash was in May 2005 near Morrinsville, Waikato, the Ministry of Transport says. Nine people died after a tourist mini-bus and a large truck carrying timber collided in wet conditions on a sweeping bend of SH 27.
The other crash in which eight people died was in Hawke's Bay on the night of September 10, 1995 when a house bus crashed off the Mohaka Bridge on the Napier-Taupō highway. The vehicle crashed through a rail on the SH 5 bridge and plunged 50 metres into the Mohaka River.
Seven people, including a newborn baby girl, died after two cars collided head-on on SH 3 near Waverly, South Taranaki, on June 27, 2018. That was the country's fourth deadliest crash.