Fatal crash closes State Highway 1 near Taupo

Sunday, 3 January 2016

One woman is dead and a pregnant woman and her husband were left with moderate to minor injuries after two-car crash north of Taupo.

Three fire crews from Rotorua and Taupo, three ambulance vehicles and police attended the crash on State Highway 1 just after 1pm on Sunday, 20 kilometres north of Taupo.

Zaffer Khan Malik, a nurse who works in Wellington Hospital's emergency department, was headed back to Wellington when he saw the crash happen.

'The car that crashed was right in front of us,' Malik said.

The driver of the southbound car, a woman Malik described as 'in her 20s', died at the scene.

Her car was the third in a row of four vehicles travelling south. Malik was in the fourth car.

There was rain, but it wasn't heavy, Malik said.

'The car just spun out of nowhere. The back wheels - she lost control of it.

Her car crossed the centre line into the path of northbound traffic.

'When she tried to correct it, oncoming traffic had already hit her.

'She was driving within the limit, running at 95kmh and it was a 100kmh zone. It was just the tyres that spun.'

The dead woman was trapped in her car.

Malik said the car was mangled. He checked the driver's pulse 'for some time' and draped a covering over the car to protect the driver's privacy.

Her body was extracted by fire officers.

The woman in the northbound car was heavily pregnant.

'She was the passenger of the car going north. She was 33 weeks pregnant. She was bleeding from her head,' said Malik.

'She could still feel the baby move - she was talking and cleary fine.'

A doctor arrived on the scene 15 minutes later and continued to assess the pregnant woman.

State Highway 1 remains closed from Palmer Mill Rd to Link Rd.

Southbound traffic is being diverted though Palmer Mill Road to SH5 and northbound traffic is being diverted through Link Road to Oruanui Rd.

The police serious crash unit will investigate the crash.