‘Worst crash on harbour bridge’

Press, 7 December 1981, Page 6

‘Worst crash on harbour bridge’

PA Auckland A motorist watched in horror last evening a head-on collision on the Auckland Harbour Bridge in which four persons died and seven were injured. He described the crash site as a mass of bodies and vehicle debris spread across six lanes of the bridge. Ambulancemen said it was the worst road accident they had attended in Auckland. The crash happened at 5.22 p.m. when a northbound van lost control on the corner opposite the Shelly Beach Road turnoff on the Auckland side of Waitemata Harbour and rolled into the path of a southbound car. Three persons were killed instantly and one died a short time later in Auckland Hospital. Two members of a young family in the car were killed. One was the mother of two boys seriously injured in the crash. She was Patricia Anne Hogan, of Thames. The police said her husband was coming from

Thames to Auckland immediately after being told of the accident. A naval rating — one of six young people in the van — was killed. He was Gregory Rooney, aged 19, of Devonport. The police last evening had not identified a woman, aged 50. and a girl, aged 17 — one from each vehicle — who also died in the crash. Ambulancemen took , eight people to Auckland. Hospital One person died there and four were in a serious condition late last evening. They were suffering from head and chest injuries with multiple fractures. All four southbound bridge lanes and two northbound lanes were closed immediately after the accident. Southbound traffic . was held up for an hour and had to be diverted off., at the Shelly Beach Road offramp. One harbour bridge officer said a lot of the congestion was caused by motorists who stopped to look at the crash scene. The passenger of a car

which slid into a barrier to avoid the pile-up described the crash as “unbelieveable.” Mr David Sowden, aged 18, of Manurewa, said he saw the van start to slide as it went into the corner. “The van went out of control and rolled into the other car,’’ he said. “It must have rolled over three times, then hit head-on — the other driver had no chance.” The senior operations officer of the St John Ambulance Association, Mr lan Lauder, said the crash was one of the worst accidents he had seen in Auckland. Bodies had been scattered from one side of the bridge to the other. Mr Lauder praised the speed at which emergency services got to the accident scene. Three life support units, three ambulances, and a control unit were there within minutes. The general manager of the bridge authority, Mr Owen Brannigan,, said that all traffic control and safety aids on the bridge were checked and found to be working normally. He said it was the worst accident in the bridge's 22-year-history, surpassing a near head-on collision on the bridge in October when four persons were killed, and four injured. An inquiry into the crash would begin today, he said. In Dunedin, a'man died in hospital of injuries he suffered after two vans collided in Dunedin on Saturday morning. He was Francis James Williams, aged 55, of Forth Street, MosgieL