SH2 reopened: One critically hurt in motorbike crash south of Hastings

State Highway 2 was closed near Te Hauke after a crash involving a motorbike and another vehicle shortly before 9.30am today. Photo / Connull Lang

One person was critically injured and part of Hawke’s Bay’s main highway was closed for more than five hours after a mid-Sunday morning crash involving a motorbike and a car.

A man was flown to Wellington Hospital after the State Highway 2 crash near Te Hauke, between Hastings and Waipawa, was reported to emergency services at 9.27am.

Police announced after 3pm the section of road had reopened after a police Serious Crash Unit investigation at the scene near the highway’s intersection with Colin White Road.

Earlier the Hawke’s Bay Rescue Helicopter flew to the scene and took one person to hospital, but no one else was reported injured.

Traffic was rerouted through Otane and Stock Rd, and motorists were being asked to take particular care with heavier traffic than usual on the narrower roads of the detour.

Meanwhile, the nationwide road toll for 2024 at midnight on Saturday was 27, which compared with 21 at the same stage of January last year and 24 at the same stage of January in 2022.

Two of those fatalities had been in Hawke’s Bay in the past week.

A motorcyclist was killed crashing into a parked truck in Kennedy Rd early last Monday morning, and an 80-year-old woman died after a mobility scooter and a vehicle collided about 12.20pm the next day near the intersection of Tomoana Rd and Williams Street, Hastings.