{"id":231827,"date":"2026-01-14T01:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T01:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/231827\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T01:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T01:09:08","slug":"road-worker-death-on-napier-taihape-rd-being-investigated-by-worksafe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/231827\/","title":{"rendered":"Road worker death on Napier-Taihape Rd being investigated by WorkSafe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"XFozzeHJqgxP\" style=\"display:none\">The crash happened near Comet Rd and Kuripapongo Bridge at Ngamahanga, about halfway up Napier-Taihape Rd, inside the Hawke\u2019s Bay boundary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"XFozzeHJqgxP\" style=\"display:none\">Road works were being carried out in the area to improve the busy road, which weaves over the Kaweka mountain range and is a main alternative to SH5 Napier-Taupo Rd.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Napier-Taihape Rd is a vital road over the Kaweka mountain range. Photo \/ NZME\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Napier-Taihape Rd is a vital road over the Kaweka mountain range. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n<p class=\"XFozzeHJqgxP\" style=\"display:none\">Watson said he was aware of the tragedy and his thoughts went out to the family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"XFozzeHJqgxP\" style=\"display:none\">He said he had been talking with iwi representatives who were planning to visit and bless the site.<\/p>\n<p class=\"XFozzeHJqgxP\" style=\"display:none\">Given the WorkSafe investigation was ongoing, he preferred not to share details about the crash.<\/p>\n<p class=\"XFozzeHJqgxP\" style=\"display:none\">He said the road works taking place were council-initiated remedial works following <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/whanganui-chronicle\/news\/taihape-napier-rd-closure-gentle-annie-resealing-set-for-early-february\/5NUGQGHFDRCKXCSTUVFA2A4KPE\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/whanganui-chronicle\/news\/taihape-napier-rd-closure-gentle-annie-resealing-set-for-early-february\/5NUGQGHFDRCKXCSTUVFA2A4KPE\/\">damage to the road<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"XFozzeHJqgxP\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWith the closure of the forestry mills, largely in the Ohakune and Ruapehu region, like Tangiwai, those logs were being carted over the Gentle Annie Rd [the Napier-Taihape Rd] to the Port of Napier.<\/p>\n<p class=\"XFozzeHJqgxP\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe road has taken a bit of a hammering,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"XFozzeHJqgxP\" style=\"display:none\">\u201c[But] this isn\u2019t about the road, this is about a tragedy where someone has unfortunately lost their life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"XFozzeHJqgxP\" style=\"display:none\">Many logs have been diverted to rail to reduce the toll on the road in recent times.<\/p>\n<p class=\"XFozzeHJqgxP\" style=\"display:none\">A police spokeswoman said police inquiries into the circumstances of the crash were ongoing, and there were no charges laid at this stage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"XFozzeHJqgxP\" style=\"display:none\">WorkSafe confirmed it was jointly investigating the circumstances, alongside police, of the road worker\u2019s death at Ngamahanga.<\/p>\n<p class=\"XFozzeHJqgxP\" style=\"display:none\">A rescue helicopter and ambulance attended the scene.<\/p>\n<p class=\"XFozzeHJqgxP\" style=\"display:none\">The road was closed following the crash, but reopened to one lane around the scene later that night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"XFozzeHJqgxP\" style=\"display:none\">The western half of Napier-Taihape Rd is owned and managed by Rangitikei District Council, while Hastings District Council owns and manages the eastern half of the 115km-long road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The crash happened near Comet Rd and Kuripapongo Bridge at Ngamahanga, about halfway up Napier-Taihape Rd, inside the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[682,3595,634,1976,35200,137694,111,43,139,69,90,675,2642,1314,12767,17705],"class_list":{"0":"post-231827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-being","9":"tag-by","10":"tag-death","11":"tag-hawkes","12":"tag-investigated","13":"tag-napiertaihape","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-on","19":"tag-police","20":"tag-rd","21":"tag-road","22":"tag-worker","23":"tag-worksafe"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231827","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=231827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}