Week-end toll claims youths, children

Press, 29 June 1987, Page 4

Week-end toll claims youths, children

PA Wellington Eleven persons were killed on the roads this week-end.

In the central North Island, three Taihape youths were killed when their car left State highway 49 at Karioi. They were

Jerrimiah Tohi Chase,

aged 19; Bert Manuhopokia Eruera, aged 17; and Stephen James McLean, aged 18.

Constable Brian Wilson, of the Ohakune police, said the three were believed to have been on their- way home from Raetihi to Taihape when the accident occurred about 4 a.m. on Saturday.

The vehicle overturned on a straight stretch of road near Karioi Road and landed on its roof in a pond. A farm worker found the vehicle at 7.45 a.m. on Saturday. One youth was still alive when the police and the Ohakune Volunteer Fire Brigade arrived but efforts to revive him failed, Constable Wilson said.

It was not clear why the accident happened. A post-mortem examination was made on Saturday. Taihape’s Mayor, Mr Noel Byford, said last evening the deaths were a shock to Taihape. “They were just youngsters. They all went to school in Taihape and they would have only just completed their schooling,” Mr Byford said.

“They are all from well known families.” A combined tangi for the youths will be held at the Winiata marae, Taihape, tomorrow morning.

In Auckland, a girl died after she and her twin sister were hit by a car in Mangere. She was Niki Marshall, also known as Niki Ikitule, aged four, of Takanini. Her sister, Alana, was last evening in a stable condition, said a spokesman at Middlemore Hospital. The police said the twins had been driven to the home of a relative by their mother on Saturday. They had gone to a nearby park while the relative was asleep and were crossing a road when hit. The car was driven by a jockey, Miss Debbie Hughes, of Takanini. She went on to win the first race at Avondale on Saturday evening, riding Tagan. Tagan’s trainer, Mr Peter Macken, said that although Miss Hughes was upset by the accident, “she was only going to sit and stew if she sat in the grandstand. “It was only going to make it worse,” he said. A small girl, hit by a car on Saturday evening, died in Middlemore Hospital yeterday. She was Rebecca Wendt, aged two, of Mangere. The police said she was carried on the bonnet

50m before the car stopped. A spokesman said that the driver, described as a male Polynesian aged between 23 to 30, apparently drove off, leaving the child on the road.

The police believe a middle-aged woman and up to four children were also in the car.

In Northland, two young men were killed after their motor-cycles collided head-on on Friday evening. They were

Carl Lewis Lumby, aged 28, of Aranga; and David Noel Remnant, aged 14, of Kaihu.

The Whangarei police said the accident happened on State highway 12, 3km south of Kaihu just after 6 p.m. In Dunedin, a man died when his vehicle hit a bank and rolled over on Brighton Road early yesterday, He was Kerry Hugh Wilson, aged 33, a labourer, of

Dunedin. The police said he was the only occupant of the car.

The accident happened about 3 a.m. when the vehicle crossed the centre line of the road, hit a bank, then travelled several metres before rolling on to its roof.

Two persons died in a head-on crash early yesterday at Paraparaumu. The police said the accident happened at 12.30 a.m., when a car on State highway one turned into Raumati Road in front of another car.

One man died at the scene. He was

George Manuhiri Pine, aged 17, of Kilbirnie.

A second passenger died in Wellington Hospital yesterday. He was Victor John Takiwa, aged 18, of Paraparaumu.

A young man was killed near Kaeo, Northland, yesterday afternoon. He was Victor Vernon Walker, aged 20, of Whangarei. The motor-cycle he was riding crashed on State highway 10 at the Matauri Bay Road junction.