'Seatbelts save lives. If it wasn’t for ours, we wouldn’t be here.' Klaudia Gaylard and her partner survived a crash at the Te Aute Rd and Crystall Rd intersection.
'Seatbelts save lives. If it wasn’t for ours, we wouldn’t be here.' Klaudia Gaylard and her partner survived a crash at the Te Aute Rd and Crystall Rd intersection.
A split-second decision to buckle up saved Hastings woman Klaudia Gaylard and her partner Louka Miller when they were expecting their first baby.
The couple was involved in a high-speed crash in 2023. The impact should have been fatal, but they walked away.
They’re among the lucky ones.
Between 2020 and 2025 there were 70 fatal crashes, resulting in 74 deaths on Hawke’s Bay roads, according to data from the NZ Transport Agency.
More than a third of those fatalities involved people who weren’t wearing seatbelts.
For Gaylard, buckling up had never been a priority. But November 28, 2023, changed everything.
“I used to be quite lazy with my seatbelt and brush off being told to wear it. Now, it’s the first thing I make everyone do before starting my car,” she said.
After surviving a crash, Klaudia Gaylard now never starts the car without buckling up. Photo / Rafaella Melo
Just nine weeks into her pregnancy, Gaylard and Miller were driving to Napier to pick up maternity clothes.
They stopped at the intersection of Crystall Rd and Te Aute Rd, just out of Havelock North, checked both ways and saw a car in the distance.
“We pulled out, and before we knew it, the other car was at our driver’s side window,” Gaylard said.
The impact was brutal. They had been T-boned at 100km/h.
“The police told us when they arrived at the scene, had we not been wearing our seatbelts, neither of us would be here,” she said.
Klaudia Gaylard’s car was destroyed in a high-speed crash at the Crystall Rd and Te Aute Rd intersection near Havelock North on November 28, 2023.
The crash left their car a mangled wreck.
The driver’s door and dashboard caved in, trapping Miller by his legs. The windscreen shattered, the chassis bent, and the vehicle was declared a write-off.
Miller sustained a split on the back of his head, while Gaylard escaped with seatbelt burns and severe bruising on her hip and sternum.
Gaylard shows the burn marks left by her seatbelt after the crash.
Beyond the physical injuries, the crash left deeper scars.
A few weeks later, for reasons unrelated to the crash, Gaylard lost the pregnancy. Now, a mother to 3-month-old Lainey, the trauma of that accident still lingers.
“When I fell pregnant again with our little girl, I was too scared to drive anywhere in fear of it happening again,” she said.
“I avoided going to appointments or even to the supermarket. I would be very anxious during my drive. I was even afraid of being a passenger in a car, and I still am to this day.”
Gaylard with her partner, Louka Miller, and their daughter, Lainey. The couple was expecting their first child when they survived a crash that changed their outlook on road safety.
Her story echoes that of Jase Cook, who at 16 lost control of his first car, a 1983 Nissan Pulsar, on a gravel road near his family’s farm, rolling down a bank in 2000.
“It was over so quickly. My life flashed in front of my eyes,” Cook said.
He was on his restricted licence and alone in the car.
“The entire roof on the passenger side caved in and would have killed anyone sitting in there.”
He believes the seatbelt was the only reason he survived.
“Without my belt on I would have exited through that sunroof and likely died,” he said.
Jase Cook (right) with his brother, Ben Cook, in front of his first car, an ‘83 Nissan Pulsar. At 16, he crashed it near his family’s farm in the Bay of Plenty, a moment that made him a lifelong advocate for seatbelt use.
More than two decades later, at 41 years old, Cook never drives without buckling up – whether in the Bay of Plenty, where he lives, or in Hawke’s Bay, where he owns rental properties.
His 17-year-old daughter has recently started driving on her own, and while he trusts her responsibility, the memories of his crash are still there.
“I worry a little. My rules and advice are to obey all road rules. Be aware of other drivers, don’t break her licence conditions, and don’t pick up her phone.”
According to police, four main behaviours contribute to deaths and injuries on roads: speed; driving while impaired by alcohol, drugs, or fatigue; driving distracted using a cell phone; and not being properly restrained.
In Hawke’s Bay, at least 22 fatal crashes involved drivers or passengers who weren’t wearing a seatbelt in the last five years, according to the Ministry of Transport.
“Restraints save lives. It’s that simple,” a police spokesperson said.
“Anyone who chooses not to wear a seatbelt significantly increases their risk of injury or death if they end up in a crash.”
The number of fines for restraint-related offences has surged in recent years, reflecting a troubling trend of drivers and passengers neglecting to buckle up.
In 2023, police issued 2769 fines for failure to wear seatbelts in Hawke’s Bay, nearly three times more than the 1036 issued in 2020, according to official data.
For Klaudia Gaylard, the lesson is clear.
“As cliché as it sounds, seatbelts save lives,” she says.
