A three-vehicle crash just north of the small North Otago town of Hampden has left one person dead and another in a critical condition.<\/p>\n
A police spokeswoman said the crash happened about 2.15pm yesterday, on State Highway1 near the intersection with Mile Flat Rd.<\/p>\n
Emergency services were called to the collision, and despite their \u2018\u2018best efforts\u2019\u2019 one person died at the scene.<\/p>\n
A second person was flown to Dunedin Hospital in a critical condition, and two other people received minor injuries.<\/p>\n
SH1 was closed between Hampden and Oamaru for a time while emergency services worked and a scene examination was conducted by the serious crash unit.<\/p>\n
Police are still investigating the circumstances surrounding the crash.<\/p>\n
A reporter at the scene said it appeared a four-door sedan had taken the brunt of the damage particularly its front end.<\/p>\n
A white ute on the other side of the road also received damage, including to its roof.<\/p>\n
There was a large emergency services presence, including two helicopters, and multiple ambulances, fire appliances and police cars.<\/p>\n
Because no detours were available, a queue of traffic comprising hundreds of vehicles stretched for kilometres in either direction for several hours.<\/p>\n
One lane was reopened just before 8pm and the road was fully opened just after 9pm.<\/p>\n
The fatal crash is one of a \u2018\u2018concerning number\u2019\u2019 that police have attended on New Zealand roads over the past two weeks.<\/p>\n
Acting director of road policing Inspector Peter McKennie said since April 20, 18 people had been killed in 14 separate crashes.<\/p>\n
He said police were \u2018\u2018disappointed at the concerning number of deaths on our roads\u2019\u2019, because police highlighted the importance of safe driving behaviours every day.<\/p>\n
As of yesterday morning, 12 more lives had been lost on New Zealand roads so far this year compared with the same time last year, he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018Our thoughts are first and foremost with the families who have lost loved ones so tragically in recent days.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018Any death on the road is one too many.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
However, he was \u2018\u2018extremely frustrated\u2019\u2019 many of the deaths could have been avoided with safer driving behaviours.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018Everyone should be extremely concerned about the rate of people being killed on New Zealand roads.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Nine of the fatal crashes were in 100kmh speed zones and involved a vehicle crossing the centre line and colliding with a vehicle travelling in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n
That resulted in 11 people being killed.<\/p>\n
Six people killed on the roads over the past two weeks were not wearing seatbelts, including one on a road with a 50kmh speed limit.<\/p>\n
Insp McKennie said police remained committed to keeping everyone safe on the roads, but they could not do it alone.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018We need everyone\u2019s help to keep our roads safe,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018Where we see any unsafe behaviours, you can expect to be stopped.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018Simple behaviours like buckling up before you travel; not getting behind the wheel if you\u2019re impaired by alcohol, drugs or fatigue; staying fully focused on the road without any distractions; and slowing down are crucial in avoiding crashes and deaths.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018There will be no tolerance from police for those who choose to disregard road safety rules and put the lives of others at risk.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A three-vehicle crash just north of the small North Otago town of Hampden has left one person dead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-407126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407126","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=407126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}