Smash rips family holiday asunder

By PATRICK GOWER AND KEVIN TAYLOR

An Easter trip away turned into a tragic Black Friday for a Tauranga family yesterday when a mother and daughter died in a head-on crash and two other family members were admitted to hospital.

The driver of the other car was also killed.

The triple fatality, on State Highway 28 at Tapapa, near Tirau, took the official Easter road toll to four last night.

Eight people died on the roads within 24 hours, including three in the South Island before the official holiday period began. Another was killed in a crash in Otahuhu, Auckland, and a motorist died of a heart attack which caused his car to crash.

In the Tapapa tragedy, one of the cars was torn in two, killing its sole occupant, 16-year-old Michael Gordon Williams, of Putaruru.

Those killed in the other vehicle were Tauranga Girls High School computer studies teacher Heather Rae Forgie, 54, and her mother, Margaret Florence Boyle, 84, from New Plymouth. They were both in the back seat.

Mrs Forgie's husband and daughter were flown by WestpacTrust Air Ambulance to Waikato Hospital. He was in a stable condition with some fractures and she was due to be discharged last night. The family are understood to have been on their way to a holiday in Napier.

Sergeant Gael Mockford, of Tokoroa, said the pair appeared to have been saved by airbags that deployed on impact.

The crash happened in greasy conditions near an easy corner on Harwoods Rd, after terrible weather overnight caused by Cyclone Sose dumped 30mm of rain in the area. A heavy fog had just lifted when the two cars collided at 9.15 am.

The road was closed for about four hours while police cleared the wreckage, which was scattered at least 20m.

A witness, Ray Goodwin, said he was in his bedroom when he heard a loud crash and looked up to see a car bouncing to a halt beside the cattlestop outside his house.

"We began ringing the ambulance and were out there doing everything we could - my wife took a hot water bottle to the elderly lady who passed away - but it was too late."

Six people died on the roads during the Easter break last year.

The fourth fatality since this year's holiday period began, at 4 pm on Thursday, was a 43-year-old man who was killed after a head-on collision on Great South Rd, Otahuhu, about 11.20 pm that night.

He was alone in a saloon car that collided with a four-wheel-drive near the intersection with Bairds Rd.

Great South Rd was closed for about 3 1/2 hours while crash investigators examined the scene.

In Christchurch, an elderly driver is believed to have died after suffering a heart attack yesterday morning. An elderly passenger is in a serious condition in hospital.

The three people killed in the South Island crash died when two cars collided head-on near Inangahua, 25km east of Westport, on Thursday afternoon, just 80 minutes before the holiday period started.

Cecil George Edward Friend, 58, and Janis Marilyn Friend, 52, of Christchurch were killed and their two adult children seriously injured.

The driver of the other car was Josef Budmiger, a 21-year-old Swiss tourist.

Meanwhile, the death of 14-year-old Charlie Wall - the fourth Taupo teenager killed in car crashes in a fortnight - has increased calls for changes to driver licence laws.

Charlie was in a car driven by another 14-year-old when it crashed at Edgecumbe.

Taupo Mayor Joan Williamson knows Charlie's whanau and the families of the three other teens, killed near Taupo on March 30, and she says there is a gloom over the community.

The driver in that first crash, a 16-year-old, had a restricted licence which prohibited his carrying passengers.

Mrs Williamson said parents had to accept more responsibility for knowing what their children were doing. "Our kids are getting killed because they are too immature."

Allan Whale, the grandfather of Sarah Anderson, one of the teenagers killed in the March 30 tragedy, said he was considering a petition to raise the driving age from 15 to 18 and requiring new drivers to undergo advanced driving courses.

Charlie Wall's funeral will be held today at Waitahanui Marae.

A crash last Saturday night, also near Taupo, could have turned into yet another tragedy. A car driven by a 16-year-old on a restricted licence rolled near Reporoa. He was carrying seven teenagers, but no one was badly hurt.

In last year's Budget the Government doubled spending on community road safety projects to nearly $5.6 million - and more money could be coming.

Transport Minister Mark Gosche told the Weekend Herald road safety advertising would move away from "shock" to showing consequences.

He said there was not enough re-inforcement of the reasons for driver licensing rules, and he supported increased funding for educating young drivers.

Herald Online feature: Cutting the road toll

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Take an intersection safety test

LTSA: Road toll update

Massey University: Effectiveness of safety advertising