Crashes keep emergency crews busy

INJURED: The sole occupant was helped by passers-by after her car rolled near Kaingaroa.

Emergency services were kept busy with a number of crashes on Northland roads over the weekend.

A woman was left with moderate injuries after rolling her car on State Highway 10 near Kaingaroa, north-east of Kaitaia, about 1pm on Sunday.

A Kaitaia Fire Brigade spokesman said the driver lost control on a sweeping curve, her car coming to rest upside down in a drain.

Passing motorists helped her out of the car; firefighters assisted St John medics and carried out traffic control. The woman was taken to Kaitaia Hospital.

The brigade was also called to a vehicle roll-over at 8.30am that day on the corner of Far North Rd and Imms Rd, Waipapakauri.

Details are sketchy about a two-vehicle head-on crash in wet conditions on Owhiwa Rd, Whangarei Heads, on Sunday. Slippery road conditions as well as the impact are thought to be responsible for one car plummeting over a bank and coming to rest several metres below while the other vehicle, towing a boat, also tipped over the bank. It is understood no one was seriously hurt.

OHIWA RD: This vehicle came to rest just over the bank, while another plummeted several metres and landed upside down.

A Kaitaia woman thought to be in her 90s had a rude awakening when an out of control car hit a power pole outside her house at 4am on Saturday, on Kaitaia's Puckey Ave, knocking out power to the street. Deputy fire chief Craig Rogers said the car "took out a power pole and cleaned out a fence", with some of the pickets breaking a window at a nearby house.

The driver had fled by the time emergency services arrived. However, there was plenty of CCTV footage earlier in the night of the vehicle performing wheelspins and being driven on the wrong side of the road.

Also on Saturday, a car rolled on Massey Rd, Waipu, with two of the four occupants taken to Whangarei Hospital.