{"id":202011,"date":"2025-12-26T01:09:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T01:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/202011\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T01:09:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T01:09:07","slug":"northland-crashes-and-quad-bike-accident-renew-road-safety-plea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/202011\/","title":{"rendered":"Northland crashes and quad bike accident renew road-safety plea"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Christmas Day, a person had to be flown to hospital in a critical condition<\/a> after a quad bike rolled over at isolated Pout\u014d Point.<\/p>\n

Hato Hone St John was called just after 2.30pm and the patient was flown to Middlemore Hospital shortly after by an Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter.<\/p>\n

Six fire crews needed to control blaze<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, volunteer firefighters from six different brigades were called away from their Christmas festivities to control a fire in forestry slash in Kaiwaka on Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Firefighters were called just after 3.30pm to the fire on the corner of Pritchard Rd and Ryan Rd, on the border between Northland and Auckland.<\/p>\n

\"FirefightersFirefighters from six brigades were needed to control the Christmas Day fire in Kaiwaka. Photo \/ Maungaturoto Volunteer Fire Brigade<\/p>\n

The fire covered 100m by 100m, and firefighters from volunteer brigades in Kaiwaka, Maungat\u016broto, Mangawhai, Paparoa, Matakana and Wellsford were called to fight the blaze.<\/p>\n

Fire and Emergency shift manager Josh Pennefather said the fire was contained by about 7pm.<\/p>\n

Northland road-safety plea renewed<\/p>\n

The busy summer holiday period has prompted Northland road-safety advocates to renew calls for drivers to take greater care on the region\u2019s roads<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Northland Road Policing, Northern Rescue Helicopters and the Northland Road Safety Trust have again teamed up to promote safer driving habits across Te Tai Tokerau<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Northland Road Policing manager Inspector John Fagan said wearing a seatbelt, driving to the conditions<\/a> and avoiding distractions can be the difference between walking away from a crash, and being seriously injured or dying.<\/p>\n

\"NorthernNorthern Rescue Helicopter\u2019s Sara Eivers (pictured from left), Northland Road Safety Trust\u2019s Ashley Johnston and Northland Road Policing\u2019s Inspector John Fagan are urging drivers to take more care on Northland\u2019s roads over the busy summer period.<\/p>\n

\u201cSadly, in Northland, there is still an entrenched culture among too many people who believe they have the right to drive after drinking, but they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is what kills people or leaves them with lifelong injuries and trauma. Sometimes innocent people die through the selfish actions of drunk and drugged drivers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Northern Rescue Helicopter critical care paramedic Sara Eivers has witnessed the unpleasant and fatal results of crashes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is devastating to see the consequences of road crashes that don\u2019t need to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Northland Road Safety Trust general manager Ashley Johnston is also frustrated by the disregard for basic road safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a mother, it is just common sense for me to wear a seatbelt and make sure my children are securely fastened with restraints. Sadly, far too many people choose not to, and that\u2019s what kills people and ruins lives,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other road safety basics like not speeding, nor driving fatigued, distracted or under the influence or drugs, alcohol or medications are also ignored by too many people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denise Piper is a news reporter<\/a> for the Northern Advocate, focusing on health and business. She has more than 20 years in journalism and is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Christmas Day, a person had to be flown to hospital in a critical condition after a quad…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1081,95,1070,18399,29422,15974,2079,3238,305,111,43,139,1067,69,1523,5353,46728,60014,81932,28029,1314,123805,1238,1321,25338,102],"class_list":["post-202011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-accident","tag-and","tag-bike","tag-christmas","tag-crashes","tag-emergency","tag-fire","tag-forestry","tag-have","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-northland","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-period","tag-plea","tag-quad","tag-renew","tag-rest","tag-road","tag-roadsafety","tag-serious","tag-services","tag-slash","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}