Editorial: A pause for reflection as life is taken

FATALITY: Masterton woman Shirley Theresa Annette Mareikura, known as Kizzy, died after being thrown from a car on SH2 at Mt Bruce. PHOTO/ANDREW BONALLACK

What will basically go unnoticed, on a day when people worry about Auckland house prices and wonder what Paul Henry's movie The Desk is all about, is the fact a woman died on a deserted country road between Eketahuna and Masterton.

Our job is to make sure it doesn't go unnoticed here in Wairarapa.

In fact, I have a lot of faith in the readership, who train a parochial eye on local happenings, and are less concerned with the new TV programme that's going to take on Jono and Ben.

I'm also happy to weather the initial condemnation of reporting about a dead person, by those who think that no one dies anymore.

I have been to many callouts, waited patiently at the road cones while police and fire crews do their jobs.

Fire crews are normally pretty energetic, happy to get a chance to do what they train so hard for. Police officers can be stern, and often exasperated at the circumstances, but will usually give the reporter some time. But when there's a death, everything is slow.

On a deserted Mt Bruce road, it's an astonishingly clear night, with the heavens painted across the sky, but it feels like a fog has descended. The few cars and trucks, backed up, have turned around and departed like a despondent crowd at a losing football game.

Overhead, the Life Flight helicopter has also been given the message, and it heads back to Wellington empty-handed. As members of the public go, I'm the only one left.

There are fire trucks and police cars and signs and road cones, and now a tow truck. It's like a grand amphitheatre, surrounding blackness. When you step beyond the strobes, the dramatic stuff cuts off, and suddenly you can see the crashed car.

There's nothing extraordinary about it. It just looks very small.

Last night, someone was probably waiting for that car to get home. In Wairarapa, there's a solid predictability to someone's route and timing, because the route is obvious.

When you get in your car, tell yourself you owe it to your loved ones to make it home. The greatest reward is your safe arrival. Live up to it.