{"id":364773,"date":"2026-04-05T10:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T10:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/364773\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T10:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T10:50:14","slug":"85-year-olds-crash-near-ruatoria-highlights-dangers-of-roaming-stock-on-sh35","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/364773\/","title":{"rendered":"85-year-old\u2019s crash near Ruat\u014dria highlights dangers of roaming stock on SH35"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt took a moment for me to register what the hang was going on until I saw the bulls move and realised we had collided,\u201d Green said.<\/p>\n

Two people came across the scene about five minutes later and helped her.<\/p>\n

They suggested taking her for a check-up, but she declined.<\/p>\n

The bulls were still alive, and the men who stopped to help shooed them off the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy car was still able to drive, but not safely, and one of the kind men offered to take me home, and the other [to] drive, but I couldn\u2019t open the door properly to get out, so I decided to stay in the car until I got home. One of the men drove in front of me and the other behind me in convoy.\u201d<\/p>\n

What was usually a 20-minute drive from there to Rangitukia, 25km northeast of Ruat\u014dria, took them more than an hour.<\/p>\n

Three hours before the accident, the 85-year-old had just been issued a warrant of fitness after spending $2000 on her Holden Captiva.<\/p>\n

Green said, after speaking with her insurance company, that the car was probably going to be a write-off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a bit sad because I have no car at the moment. I am an independent person for my age and rely on it for medical reasons because I live rural,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, she still needs to get to Four Square Ruat\u014dria for necessities.<\/p>\n

She felt lucky to be okay after the accident, but still has a sore back and shoulder.<\/p>\n

\u201cI make this drive at least once a fortnight, so I am very familiar with the roads,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know whose bulls they were, unfortunately, or which farm they belonged to.\u201d<\/p>\n

She made a report to Ruat\u014dria police the following day, but she still doesn\u2019t know who owns the stock.<\/p>\n

\" Georgina Green’s damaged car is probably going to be written off after she collided with two bulls on State Highway 35.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Gisborne Herald last year, Gisborne freight driver David Connell said he believed the issue of roaming stock was worst on the East Coast.<\/a><\/p>\n

Data from the NZ Transport Agency and the Gisborne District Council (GDC) showed there were more than 450 incidents of roaming stock in just over a year<\/a> on the region\u2019s local roads and state highways.<\/p>\n

Green wants something to be done about the issue of roaming stock on Tair\u0101whiti roads.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I spoke to local farmers, no one seems to want to take responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the stock could\u2019ve wandered down the stream, but they shouldn\u2019t be able to access the stream, so that is also an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt took a moment for me to register what the hang was going on until I saw the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11689,191753,58032,3549,12631,4510,15453,8788,26755,3180,111,43,139,69,1118,90,111298,191754,4514,191755,12633,781,102,5816,96403],"class_list":{"0":"post-364773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-11689","9":"tag-85yearolds","10":"tag-bulls","11":"tag-crash","12":"tag-dangers","13":"tag-dark","14":"tag-elderly","15":"tag-highlights","16":"tag-highway","17":"tag-near","18":"tag-new-zealand","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-newzealand","21":"tag-nz","22":"tag-of","23":"tag-on","24":"tag-roaming","25":"tag-ruatria","26":"tag-same","27":"tag-sh35","28":"tag-spent","29":"tag-stock","30":"tag-with","31":"tag-womans","32":"tag-wrecked"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364773","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=364773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}