Oil spill may have led to fatal crash

The scene of the crash. Photo / George Novak

An unseen oil spill may have played a part in a crash in which a young child died after a car veered into a power pole and smashed into a paddock.

The crash on Oropi Rd in the western Bay of Plenty was believed to have happened when the driver failed to negotiate a left-hand bend near Castles Rd at 7.43pm on Sunday.

The car hit a concrete power pole, went through a fence and came to a stop in a farm paddock full of cows.

The child, believed to be a 2-year-old girl, was seated in a child restraint at the rear-left of the car, but attempts to save her were unsuccessful.

The driver did not suffer any injuries but was taken to Tauranga Hospital.

Residents of Oropi Rd said the bend was notoriously difficult to negotiate, and there had been a number of crashes at that point, which is in a rural area.

They have also described seeing oil on the road that night.

Daphne Tomkins, who along with husband Peter helped to slow traffic on the road following the crash, said there had been "a big oil slick on the road", around 1m wide and 5m long.

"There's oil slicks on the road all the time, and it doesn't show until it gets moisture after a dry spell, and it brings it to the surface,"she said.

"Whether that played a part in the crash, I don't know, because there was definitely an oil slick on the corner."

It had been raining lightly on and off that night, she said.

The crash happened about 100m from their home, Mrs Tomkins said.

"We didn't see it, we heard it. We were watching TV when the power went off and we looked out the window and could see the power wires swaying and arcing and all that sort of thing," she said.

"[I] grabbed the cellphone and a couple of coats, because it was light drizzle, and just ran down the road. We saw other people around the car so we didn't go any further, but I did ring the emergency services.

"I found a cone on the side of the road and I put it in the centre of the road."

She described seeing the woman, believed to be the child's mother, in a "very distressed" state following the crash.

Two men helping at the scene told her the child "certainly didn't look good", which she relayed to emergency services.

Mrs Tomkins described the bend as "a really bad corner", and said it was the road's first corner after a roughly 5km downhill stretch.

"It definitely needs a crash bar all the way down because it's just happening far too much," she said.

"Perhaps people have learned from this and we can get a crash bar there to prevent any more deaths."

Another Oropi Rd resident, who did not wish to be named, said Western Bay of Plenty District Council had been warned many times over the years about the dangers associated with the corner.

The corner, along with the next one down, was "notorious for accidents", the resident said, and while many had been minor, there had also been several major ones in recent years.

Vehicles had crashed through her farm fence "dozens of times" and it was an all too familiar sight to see skid marks, scuffed banks, broken fences and upside-down cars in paddocks.

On this occasion, the car came to rest about 200-300m from her house.

An elderly resident said he had lived in the area for 10 years and, on at least three occasions, vehicles had gone through his fence. He would like to see the speed limit reduced to 80km/h.

Western Bay of Plenty District Council transportation manager Alex Finn said the stretch of road had been ranked as one of the two more dangerous in the district due to a number of issues, which included "quite a number" of motorists leaving the road and ending up in paddocks.

Council engineers were at the scene yesterday to assess the road conditions, and were due to report back in the coming days, Mr Finn said.

- Additional reporting: Sandra Conchie of the Bay of Plenty Times

Other fatal crashes on Oropi Rd:

January 2011: Local men Robin Fong and Chris Vickers were killed in a head-on smash

July 2010: Nelson Commerer died instantly after his motorbike collided with a ute.