Senior Sergeant John Fagan describes fatal road fatalities as "sudden and terrible". Photo / Michael Cunningham
Senior Sergeant John Fagan describes fatal road fatalities as "sudden and terrible". Photo / Michael Cunningham
When someone dies in a road crash there is no final goodbye or second chance to say something meaningful to them.
"They are there in your life and then they are gone. It is sudden and terrible. Please think about that when you're contemplating driving on our roads."
Those were the heartfelt words of Northland Senior Sergeant John Fagan who dealt with both fatal crashes in Northland this week and has seen first-hand the trauma caused.
The two fatalities have pushed the region's road toll to 12 for the year so far and come during Road Safety Week.
Fagan spent most of Tuesday at an accident near Kaiwaka after a truck and trailer went off State Highway 1 killing the driver, 52-year-old John Sturge, of Ngunguru.
He was then notified of a fatal crash on SH1 at Okaihau on Wednesday when a 21-year-old Kerikeri woman was hit by a car about 10pm. Her name is yet to be released.
"Two whanau in Northland are suffering this week after two fatal accidents on our roads and we acknowledge their grief," Fagan said.
Senior Sergeant John Fagan. Photo / Michael Cunningham
"Every one of the emergency services workers who attended both the truck accident in Kaiwaka and then at Okaihau will take a little piece of these accidents home with them and every time they drive past that location will remember the people they dealt with, the family they passed on the sad news to, and above all the sights of the trauma."
He said roads were dangerous places whether people were driving, walking alongside or operating equipment on them, and required everyone to be concentrating 100 per cent.
Everyone had to be responsible for their driving behaviour which started with very simple actions.
That meant being well rested, not being distracted by cell phones or other devices, being aware anything can happen on the road at any time and being ready to react.
"And above all else wear your seatbelt, it will increase the chances of surviving a accident one day if you or someone else makes a mistake on our roads – it takes two seconds to put your seatbelt on," Fagan said.
Of the 35 fatalities in Northland last year, 12 people were not wearing seatbelts and of the 40 crash fatalities in 2017, 15 people were unrestrained. A police blitz in April across the region resulted in a third of all motorists stopped being fined for not wearing a seatbelt.
Initial investigations have revealed the female driver, killed on Wednesday, may have stopped in the wrong lane while travelling south, just north of Kaikohe and near Old Valley Rd.
A northbound vehicle has then tried to avoid the stationary car in its lane and has struck the woman who was standing on the side of the road. She died at the scene.
Senior Sergeant Brian Swann said the passenger in the stopped vehicle was not injured but four people in the other vehicle suffered moderate injuries.
