Miracle on the motorway

The Kauone and Tunupopo families. Front row: Eli, 10; Tiana, 22, holding Nevaeh, 3; Afa, 22, holding Amiah, 1; Isaac, 9. Back row: Abadiah, 16; Te Are, 15; Jordan, 12. Photo / Herald on Sunday

Police describe it as a "fatal waiting to happen": seven children in the back of a van, some not wearing seat belts, and a young driver, exhausted after a long day at the zoo, who fell asleep at the wheel.

And the driver, father of two Afa Tunupopo, admits it was just luck that he didn't kill himself or any of his passengers.

The van was travelling about 80km/h when it ploughed into a roadside bank on State Highway 2 between Wellington and Lower Hutt and rolled four times.

The incident closed both northbound lanes for nearly an hour just over a week ago but miraculously there were only minor injuries.

The children, aged one, three, nine, 10, 12, 15 and 16, were badly shaken by the impact and cut by glass shattering from the windows. Two of the older children spent four nights in Hutt Hospital with friction burns.

Tunupopo, 23, said the young passengers were screaming hysterically by the time the van came to a rest - though the noise was a relief to him.

"It would have been worse if I had turned around and everyone was quiet," he said.

The youngest child was securely strapped in a baby seat but two of the children were not wearing seat belts and the 3-year-old was sharing a seat belt while being nursed on her mother's lap.

"For what the car looks like, at least one or two of us should have been fatal," Tunupopo said. "Someone must have been looking down on us.

"Being on the motorway, we could have really done some damage to other people."

He said he wanted all parents to learn from his mistake.

"I assumed they already had their seat belts on. If I could go back I would have reminded them all - at the end of the day it saves lives."

The children's grandmother, Huia Kauone, said she was disappointed they had not been wearing seat belts.

"It's one of those things that they should know. Did they have to go through that to realise the importance of it? It really disappointed me."

Senior Sergeant Richard Hocken said careless driving charges would be laid. The law requires drivers and all passengers, front and rear, to wear seat belts and responsibility falls on the driver when the passengers are younger than 16.