Fatal crash closes State Highway 50 near Taradale, between Napier and Hastings

A crash has closed Waiohiki Road near Taradale. Photo / File

A motorist has died in a crash at the side of State Highway 50 near Taradale.

The crash happened just before 9am today when a vehicle travelling towards Taradale crossed the lanes and struck a tree on the boundary of the Napier Golf Club course, just south of Taradale and about 11km from Napier.

Police Eastern District road policing manager Inspector Matt Broderick said late afternoon that while the crash was being investigated it was possible the male driver and sole occupant of the vehicle had suffered a medical event before the crash.

Locals rushed to help but the man died in the vehicle. A karakia in respect of the victim and the area was spoken soon after.

A section of the highway, one of several Napier-Hastings arterials, was closed to traffic for some time, but reopened in the afternoon.

One person was taken to hospital by ambulance about an hour later after being struck by a truck in Napier's Onekawa industrial district. Police were called to the incident in Wakefield St at 10.32am and one person was taken by ambulance to hospital in Hastings and treated and discharged.

Meanwhile, a man aged in his 30s was in a stable condition in hospital recovering from injuries received when a van left State Highway 5 and rolled down a bank at Te Pohue on Wednesday morning.

The death today is the second on roads in the wider Napier area in a week. Another man died on coastal route State Highway 51 last Thursday.