Fatal crash ends hopes of holiday traffic calm

By PATRICK GOWER

Heavy holiday traffic flowed freely home into Auckland tonight despite wet weather and a major accident that closed State Highway 1.

An Auckland woman was killed in a head-on collision south of Mercer at 2.45pm. Traffic was diverted around the accident scene, leaving the four-lane stretch of highway towards the Bombay Hills uncharacteristically empty for the afternoon.

Northbound traffic was instead directed through backroads and on to State Highway 2, creating large "stop-start" queues for a short distance near Mangatawhiri, where it joined returning traffic from Coromandel and south.

And despite predictions of horror queues on State Highway 1 north of Auckland after a series of delays over the holiday season, police described the flowing traffic as "absolutely marvellous" by comparison.

Inspector David Montgomerie, of the police Northern Communications Centre, said while tradition was for the roads to be extremely busy as people returned at the end of a two-week break from work yesterday, "it just didn't happen".

A queue about 8km long in the Mangatawhiri area developed at 6.30pm, but was not causing major problems.

State Highway 1 was reopened at 6pm, after being closed for nearly three hours while police investigated the crash and cleared the wreckage.

Sergeant Mark Toomey said the woman killed was driving a Toyota Starlet towards Auckland when it veered across the centre line and into the path of an oncoming car carrying two young children.

The cars were travelling along a straight length of road when they crashed.

Mr Toomey said he did not believe speed was a factor, and police would investigate whether fatigue or a medical condition had caused the car to leave its lane.

The Waikato Chiefs rugby team video analyst, Niko Le Roux, was in the other car with his wife and two children who police said were aged two years and three weeks.

Chiefs manager Doug Wilson said Mr Le Roux's wife was in hospital, but he and the children had escaped unhurt.

The sole passenger of the dead woman's car also suffered serious injuries in the crash.

The now-notorious bottleneck on State Highway 1 between Orewa and Puhoi was free flowing. Police said steady traffic on State Highway 16 through Helensville and the Northwestern Motorway showed people had heeded warnings and used it as alternative route home from north of Auckland.

In the past two weeks the huge delays have led to road-rage incidents involving a Machete and softball bats, with the usual five-minute trip from Silverdale to Orewa taking up to 40 minutes.

But apart from a 15-minute traffic delay caused by a crash at Waiwera, Orewa police said the traffic yesterday was "absolutely marvellous".

"It's been all good - the traffic is light and flowing smoothly. It's been pretty light all day and I guess the wet weather has made people slow down," said Constable Andy Morrish.

Another traditional holiday bottleneck, the Kopu Bridge at Thames, was also better than usual, with Thames Police unusually receiving no telephone calls about congestion on its one lane.

Traffic on the Kopu-Hikuai Road from beach resorts like Pauanui, Whangamata and Hahei was also flowing freely.

In other accidents, a man was killed and three others were injured when a car ran off the road and smashed into a tree on State Highway 1 near Turangi on Saturday night.

The dead man was named as the driver, Richard Te Heuheu, 54, of Turangi.

Two passengers suffered serious injuries and were taken to Waikato Hospital by rescue helicopter, while a third person was also injured.

"The vehicle lost control, went off the road and rolled several times before hitting a tree and being shot back on to the roadway," Inspector Chris Douglas said.

And a collision between a car and a tourist bus on State Highway 3 north of Te Kuiti at 3.25pm left two people in a serious condition in Waikato Hospital.

The woman driver of the car and another family member were taken to hospital by rescue helicopter after being trapped for an hour.

Ten people from the bus suffered minor injuries and were taken by road to hospital.

A bald tyre on a car blew out and caused a five-car pile-up beside the Newmarket viaduct about 6pm but also did not cause major delays.

In Wellington, returning holidaymakers faced delays after a four-vehicle, non-fatal crash about 2.30pm near Fisherman's Table restaurant between Paekakariki and Pukerua Bay.

- Additional reporting: Natasha Harris

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