Woman dies in two-car smash

The crash south of Turangi closed SH1. Photo / NZME.

A woman died and two people were injured in a crash on State Highway 1, near Turangi.

Two cars collided just south of the township about 1pm yesterday, police said.

The road was closed for several hours and diversions were in place at state highways 41, 47 and 46. One lane was reopened about 5.30pm.

Police said it appeared the vehicles collided as one attempted to turn right from the highway into a driveway. The car attempting the right-hand turn was travelling north and its female passenger died at the scene.

The male driver of the car was taken to Taupo Hospital as well as a female passenger in the second car, which was travelling south. The second car's male driver was not injured.

Police had not released the dead woman's name last night.

Turangi chief fire officer Tong Kingi said three vehicles had attended from their fire station.

He said his crew had worked to extract the woman who died.

"We had the rescue tender which has the jaws of life, the hydraulic [rescue tool], one other fire truck and a operational support unit," Mr Kingi said.

"We were probably on the scene within six to 10 minutes from when we got the call but all emergency services were on hand fairly quickly. The crash was actually located at the entrance of the Tongariro National Trout Centre.

"We had a very unfortunate outcome but the fire service has processes in place to support staff, it can be quite traumatic at scenes like this but we will have a number of debriefs."

The Turangi Fire Service is comprised of volunteers and has 25 members.

"I'm incredibly proud of the team, we are a very well-oiled machine. Unfortunately for brigades, sometimes this [fatalities] is the reality, we are a state highway brigade and at times we do encounter serious crashes and it's never nice to come across but we put in 110 per cent, no matter what."

Additional reporting NZME