Three injured in crash
A 20-year-old woman is in a stable condition after a car she was travelling in rolled north of New Plymouth, less than a kilometre from where a teenager died last month.
Emergency services were called at 8.50pm on Tuesday to reports of a car rolling in Tate Rd, Brixton.
Waitara deputy chief fire officer Matt Smith said the car had hit a culvert, gone through a fence and rolled across a paddock, coming to a stop against another fence.
Smith said two occupants got out of the car on their own and another was thrown from the vehicle.
He said the person was sent about 15 metres past the car, and was more seriously hurt than the others.
A St John Ambulance spokesperson said the three were taken to Taranaki Base Hospital: one in critical condition, one in serious condition and one in moderate condition.
Yesterday, Taranaki District Health Board said two people had been discharged from the emergency department and a 20-yearold female was in a stable condition in intensive care.
Sergeant Philip Quinn, of New Plymouth police, said the serious crash unit was investigating.
He said he could not comment on the cause of the crash, and whether speed was a factor, as it was still under investigation.
‘‘Historically, we know at Tate Rd, it’s a pretty straight road but they’ve got those dips in the middle, and speed has been an issue in that area in the past.’’
He also confirmed there was a fourth person in the vehicle but he understood they were not taken to hospital.
Nearby property owner Patrick Landrigan grazes thoroughbred racehorses and had just moved four mares and their foals to another paddock on Saturday.
He said it was the third crash in less than two months and he was notified by a late-night phone call. ‘‘It was a bit of a surprise and a shock.
‘‘Tate Rd is a long straight road but with two dips in it and the second dip, the bigger of the two, is just before my property.
‘‘Cars fly down the road and over the dip all the time.’’
He would like to see a speed camera installed just before the dip.
He hoped it would slow drivers down so they could navigate the route more safely and prevent future crashes.
Tate Rd resident Sharron Potroz said she was lying in bed when she heard something she’d heard too many times before – a crash. She said people tended to speed along the road and see how fast they could hit the dip, and then would lose control.
‘‘This is the second one in what, a month? They’re just lucky they’re walking away.’’
Potroz has lived next to the road for more than 20 years, and says there’s always been crashes on that stretch.
‘‘It won’t be long and another life will be taken.’’
The crash happened about 500 metres from the intersection of Tate and Brown roads where little more than a month ago 19-year-old Waisea Naumotu was killed.
Naumotu died when the car he was driving left the road and crashed into a paddock near the intersection about 10.30pm on February 13.
He was the vehicle’s sole occupant and was thrown from the car.
Jaysen Kane Chard was disqualified from driving for seven months, sentenced to six months of supervision and ordered to pay reparation after crashing his car into a paddock next to Tate Rd on February 2 after he had been drinking.
‘‘It won’t be long and another life will be taken.’’ Tate Rd resident Sharron Potroz