KEY POINTS:
Wellington's new $40 million inner-city bypass has claimed what is thought to be its first fatal crash victim.
Karl Edwards, aged 28, of Upper Hutt, died at the scene and a 27-year-old woman is in Wellington Hospital with serious head and leg injuries after their cars collided on the motorway's Karo Driver early today.
The pair, the only occupants of their vehicles, had to be cut free by firefighters.
Inspector Kevin Riordan this afternoon called for witnesses to the accident at 12.06am on Karo Drive, at the Willis and Abel Smith Street intersection.
"Early reports indicate that the woman's vehicle was heading the wrong way south on the one-way part of Willis Street and collided at the intersection with the car heading north on Karo Drive.
"An off-duty police officer was first on the scene and alerted emergency services."
The bypass, which opened in stages from December last year, was challenged for years by protesters who didn't want the character of the inner city suburb destroyed, and after it opened critics complained about congestion.
The bypass provides a route through central Wellington between the Terrace Tunnel and Basin Reserve. Its northbound section was opened last December and the southbound section was opened later.
Karo Drive and the northbound entrance to the motorway were closed for nearly four hours today until the scene examination was finished and the wreckage cleared.
- NZPA
