Skid marks lead to Haast crash

Press, 7 June 1983, Page 1

Skid marks lead to Haast crash

Two black skid marks leading off State highway 6, near the Gates of Haast in South Westland, yesterday led to the finding far below of a wrecked car and two bodies. The bodies of two men, “not locals,” according to the Wanaka police, had to be recovered by helicopter, because of the rugged terrain.

Their identities had not been established by late last evening, the police said. A police spokesman said that if a motorist passing about 1 p.m. had not seen the black tyre marks leading off the road, the accident could easily have remained undiscovered. - The shattered wreckage

of the car lay about 100 metres down a steep bluff at an area called “the Hinge,” just east of the Gates of Haast Bridge, between Haast and Wanaka. The two men had been thrown out, of the car after its plunge from the road.

The bodies had been recovered by helicopter with no problems, said the police spokesman. The Queen’s Birthday week-end road toll rose to four last evening with the death of a girl near Hastings after she fell out the rear door, of her parents’ car the Press Association reported. She was Puni Temaro, aged four, of Waipawa. She was struck by a van

travelling in the opposite direction.

The accident happened about 5.20 p.m. near Poukawa, about 11km south of Hastings on State highway 2. The first death of the week-end occurred in Wellington. A man died in hospital yesterday of injuries suffered in a collision on Friday night between his motor-cycle and a car. He was Adrian Bentley, aged 18, a shed hand, of Stokes Valley, Wellington. The official holiday period will end at 8 a.m. today. Over the same weekend last year, nine people were killed on the roads.