A woman has been killed after being hit by a car in Auckland tonight. The woman, in her 80s, was crossing the road when she was struck by a car driving out of the Z service station in Ash St, Avondale shortly before 10pm.
An elderly woman was metres from her home when she was struck by a car last night.
The woman was hit outside the Z petrol station on Ash St in Avondale, west Auckland around 10pm, police said.
She died at the scene.
She was crossing the road, on her way from the playing housie at the Avondale Racecourse, and had almost reached the other side when she was hit, a neighbour told NZME. News Service.
"She was a frequent housie player in the Avondale Racecourse, so she was heading home after her night out at housie," the neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, said. "That was her outing, to go over to the racecourse and catch up with her friends and play housie."
The section of the road close to the racecourse and the service station was busy, and quite dangerous, the woman said. A new pedestrian crossing had been installed in recent weeks, but she didn't think it had been placed in the right area.
The woman - who police said was aged in her 80s, but the neighbour said was 75 - had not used the crossing last night, the neighbour said.
"She had voiced on her way to housie that she would have to go down and use the crossing, [but] it's sort of out of your way when you're used to just crossing straight out of your driveway.
Police staff are talking to the driver of the car and the Serious Crash Unit is investigating. Photo / Daniel Hines
"She crossed at the crossing on the way over, but on the way back, unfortunately, she didn't."
She had been struck "right at the end of her driveway", the neighbour said.
"Where her body was lying was right by the edge of the road to being on the safe side of the road, you know being home," she said, adding the woman was "almost there".
She said: "First on the scene were the people who live in the house where it happened in front of, and they ran up and got the family and they came down and the granddaughter started CPR straight away.
"But I think she was gone before she hit the ground, because the ambulance when they arrived, they tried to revive her but she was too far gone."
The family were coping "not too bad", she said, but it was a shock for them, especially as the woman had a mentally disabled son who she still cared for.
"They've had to try and explain to him what's happened to his mum. But there's a few family members living in the house."
The woman had lived in her Avondale home for around 50 years, the neighbour said, and was well known to neighbours who would frequently see her making her way to housie. They were today shocked by her death.
No-one was sure what had happened, the woman said, but police had examined the scene until around 4am.
"He was a young guy driving by himself. I felt really sorry for him actually because no-one went near him, he was just left alone on the other side of the road watching the family grieving. It was really quite sad."
The road had seen a number of incidents over the years, the woman said, prompting authorities to install the pedestrian crossing.
Last night police said the car that struck the woman was not travelling fast at the time. "The car was coming out of the Z station and hit her at low speed," Inspector Tony Wakelin said.
The driver was interviewed by police, and the serious crash unit were investigating. It was not yet known whether any charges would be laid against the driver, police said today.
Last night's fatality was near a stretch of road that almost claimed the life of a 19-year-old Avondale woman last month after she was struck by a car and lay injured on the side of the road.
Michele Foster-Chambers was walking to meet a friend when she crossed Great North Rd and was struck by a car that did not stop.
She was thrown over the bonnet, her head smashing into the windscreen before she landed on the road, where she lay in a gutter until someone stopped and took her home.
