A Hawke's Bay man in his 50s, a former police officer, died at a roadside accident involving nobody else on October 28.
His van had somehow veered into a culvert on Farndon Rd, Clive. His pet dog perished in the accident.
The man was the neighbour of a colleague of mine.
It was a completely unexpected event with no other parties involved that ended a person's life.
It was the kind of event that makes you dwell on your mortality and not as rare as many might choose to believe.
On Saturday, on a sunny Hawke's Bay day, a man test-riding a trike on a Napier street ran straight through a fence and died at the scene.
He had driven down from Auckland planning to buy the 1200cc trike but his life was over within minutes of his first ride on it. An almost unbelievable trauma on a quiet Saturday afternoon in suburbia.
On Sunday, a 66-year-old man was found dead beside a rural road near Wairoa. Apparently he had fallen from a bicycle during a training ride although no one is quite sure.
The man was found in a small ditch and his bike was located soon afterwards in a nearby paddock.
Police say someone may have come across the bike on the road and moved it clear, without noticing the deceased man.
Again, as far as we know, no one else was involved in the incident.
Three sudden, unexpected deaths in Hawke's Bay within a handful of days. It goes to show what every emergency department doctor and hospital ward nurse already knows, we can meet our maker very quickly indeed.
It's always a good time then to be friendly to those around you. Tell the people you love how much you love them and enjoy the day. They're all precious.
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