City of snails: Five crashes on motorway during morning commute

Heavy citybound traffic on the Northern Motorway this morning. Photo / NZTA

Traffic has finally cleared after being bumper-to-bumper for several hours on the Northern Motorway in Auckland following five separate traffic incidents since 8am, NZTA confirmed.

Rush-hour traffic was already building up when a crash happened on the city-bound lanes just after Constellation Drive.

Just one hour later, a motorcycle collided with a car on the same route near Northcote Rd.

Nthn Mwy remains heavy citybound this morning following 2 earlier #crashes. Taking 25mins Greville Rd to CBD ^TP pic.twitter.com/4jZSbKiMHx

— Waka Kotahi NZTA Auckland & Northland (@WakaKotahiAkNth) May 17, 2016

This was followed by a four-vehicle crash near the Constellation Drive off-ramp around 11.30am. At least one person was said to have sustained neck injuries.

The fourth incident took place shortly after when two cars had a nose-to-tail collision in the queue that had built up following the multi-car incident.

A motorcyclist slid off his bike on the Curren St onramp at 12pm, which ended up blocking part of the onramp.
T
he wet and rainy conditions are a hazard said NZTA Media Manager Auckland and Northland Sarah Azam.

"Our message to people is, slow down, take care and watch your following distances," she said.