Town farewells 'Billy'

By STACEY BODGER

TAUMARUNUI - The residents of Taumarunui lined the main street with heads bowed yesterday as the body of Staff Sergeant William White was carried on a gun carriage to the town cemetery.

Schoolchildren, workers and shoppers all stepped outside to honour Staff Sergeant White, of Taumarunui, who was killed in an Anzac Day crash while serving in East Timor, 17 days before he was due to return home.

Earlier, about 750 people, including 300 Army soldiers, gathered at Wharairoa Marae in Taumarunui for a service to remember the staunch but quick-witted soldier who was known to all as "Billy."

However the day was also marked by a further vehicle accident, in which a Waiouru-based soldier was seriously injured while returning from the funeral.

The 35-year-old soldier, whose name has not been released, was admitted to Palmerston North Hospital suffering from hip and internal injuries.

An Army spokesman said last night that the soldier's condition was stable.

The injured man was one of three soldier passengers in an Army-owned four-wheel-drive Mitsubishi van that was in a collision with a logging truck on State Highway 49, near the Tangiwai Sawmill, at 3.45 pm.

He was trapped in the van for more than an hour while firefighters from Waiouru used heavy cutting gear to free him.

He was treated at the scene by St John Ambulance officers before being flown to Palmerston North Hospital by the Tranz Rail rescue helicopter.

The driver and other passengers received minor injuries and were taken to Waiouru Military Hospital.

They were subsequently discharged.

At yesterday's service, attended by Defence Minister Mark Burton and many high-ranking Army officers, Major Nick Nelson - second-in-command of Staff Sergeant White's battalion - said his colleague had found his niche when he joined the infantry.

Major Nelson said Staff Sergeant White could not wait to be reunited with his wife, Marilyn, and his daughters - but was instead killed while driving to assist other soldiers, who had vehicle problems.

Staff Sergeant White died after the Unimog truck he was driving left the road and crashed 30m down a bluff near Lolotoe, about 25km inland from Suai, on the southern coast of the island nation.