infonews.co.nz
INDEX
NEWS

LIVE UPDATES: Three crashes in Taranaki keep emergency services busy

Sunday 17 March 2013, 2:41PM

By NP Linked Taranaki

475 views

Awakino Crash Scene
Awakino Crash Scene Credit: TARANAKI RESCUE HELICOPTER TRUST

Today there have been three crashes in Taranaki in the matter of just four hours keeping emergency services in Taranaki busy.

INFONEWS.CO.NZ HAS LIVE UPDATES BELOW.

MINOR CRASH

The first crash was a minor crash which caused the power to be out on one side of Waitara, a small suburb of New Plymouth.

SECOND CRASH: FULL SCALE EMERGENCY

The second crash occured when a car smashed into a tree on De Havilland Drive near New Plymouth Airport and Bell Block.

The crash caused a full scale emergency, with over three fire engines arriving at the scene of the crash. 

A witness of the Bell Block crash told infonews.co.nz the scene was horrific. "The car was in a bad shape"

AWAKINO CRASH: TWO TRAPPED

Meanwhile the third crash was a major crash which has the Taranaki Rescue Helicopter rushing to the scene while emergency services race to the crash site of two people trapped off a bank when the car drove off it.

The paitents have been taken to the Taranaki Base Hospital.

The third crash occured at around midday.

WET WEATHER 'PLAYS BIG PART'

A witness told infonews.co.nz "Because of our wet weather this is making driving conditions very bad to drive on so people really need to take extra caution when driving in and around Taranaki, It is a major hazard which is keeping emergency services busy.

 

 

LIVE UPDATES ON TARANAKI TRAFFIC

Because of the crashes and traffic problems that Taranaki are experancing today infonews.co.nz has decided to create live updates on Taranaki's crashes and traffic updates.

Keep up with the news on infonews.co.nz throughout the day.

2.02pm: Taranaki Rescue Helicopter Trust confirms to infonews.co.nz that the patients are en-route to the Taranaki Base Hospital.

1.53pm: Taranaki Rescue Helicopter Trust post a photo from the Awakino Crash scene.

12.00pm (MIDDAY): A crash near Awakino has caused a helicopter to rush to the scene followed by emergency services racing to the scene where two people are trapped after the vehicle went over a cliff.

11.30am: A crash on De Havilland Drive in New Plymouth was being called 'horrific' by witness's, our reporters are still investigating.

10.30am: A crash has occured around Waitara a New Plymouth suburb causing power to be out to over 1000 homes.