Riders, car topple on Rimutaka Hill road

OVER: A car ends up on its side on the Rimutaka Hill Rd yesterday.

IT WAS a bumpy afternoon on the Rimutaka Hill road yesterday, with two riders escaping serious injury in motorcycle crashes within minutes and a few hundred metres of each other, while a car ended up on its side and against the bank.

The first crash, reported to police about 1.50pm, occurred when the rider struck a large farm padlock that had fallen on to the road, near the summit on the Featherston side.

Masterton police confirmed a complaint had been received about an object on the road at the time.

The second crash occurred in the next half hour, just a few hundred metres away on the other side of the summit.

The second rider was a man over 40 from Upper Hutt, who did not wish to be named.

He said his crash occurred when he misjudged a corner, driving south towards Upper Hutt, just on the Hutt side of the summit.

"It was low speed on the corner and I lost traction on the front tyre," the rider said.

"I had cold tyres and the guys [other riders] reckoned the grip wasn't what it should be."

The rider said he had been riding for many years and the crash was "a rookie mistake".

The handlebars of his bike had been broken but he was unhurt.

He said he had seen the rider of the first motorbike to tumble and though the fully-suited rider appeared unhurt, his Suzuki bike was another story.

The Suzuki had apparently struck a giant padlock or farm implement, the rider said.

"So there was a foreign object on the road."

Striking the object had knocked out the front wheel of the bike, the rider said. "When I saw it, it looked like [the wheel] had been lopped off."

The Suzuki rider was seen sitting in the cab of a truck that had come to collect his broken ride.

Police and Featherston fire crews attended a crash when car slid into the bank on Rimutaka Hill Rd shortly after 4pm, ending up on its side.

Featherston fire chief Colin McKenna said the driver, who had apparently fallen asleep, was not injured.