KEY POINTS:
A nine-year-old girl is in hospital with suspected spinal injuries after a high speed motorbike crash on a Waikato beach.
The Westpac Waikato Air Ambulance was called to Port Waikato after the crash this afternoon.
The Hamilton girl was treated at the scene before being flown to Waikato Hospital under the care of St John paramedics.
The safety of using vehicles on beaches has already been under the spotlight this summer with two serious crashes, one of which claimed the life of a teenage girl.
Daisy Fernandez, 13, of Tauranga died in hospital after being struck by a motorbike at Ripiro Beach at Glinks Gully, 17km southwest of Dargaville on New Year's Eve.
The rider, a 15-year-old local boy, was alleged to have been racing his unregistered motocross machine without a headlight in the 9.30pm incident.
On January 19 a quadbiker was seriously injured after a collision with a trailbike rider on Auckland's West Coast Muriwai beach.
- NZPA
