Updated 17:01
A 57-year-old driver has been charged with careless driving causing injury following a serious two-vehicle collision on State Highway 5 near Rangitaiki School Road that injured 12 people Sunday morning. The driver has been summonsed to appear in the Tauranga District Court next week.
Police have confirmed the crash, which occurred around 10:27am, involved a van and an SUV. Initial investigations suggest the van driver attempted to overtake a vehicle and struck the second vehicle head-on.
The crash prompted a major emergency response as Hato Hone St John deployed four ambulances, one rapid response unit, and four helicopters to the scene. Nine patients were airlifted to Waikato Hospital—four in a serious condition, three in a moderate condition, and two in a minor condition. Three additional patients were transported by road to Taupō Hospital—two in a moderate condition and one in a minor condition.
Correction: An earlier version of this story reported 13 people were injured based on initial information from emergency services. St John has since confirmed the total number of patients was 12.
The road was closed for approximately three hours as emergency services cleared the scene and conducted initial enquiries.
This marks the second serious crash in the Rangitaiki area in just 9 days, after another two-vehicle crash occurred in the same area on March 14.
Senior Sergeant Fane Troy, Taupō Road Policing Manager, indicated that while highway crashes tend to be severe due to the speeds involved, this particular stretch of road isn't known as a crash hotspot.
"The stretch of road itself where this crash happened isn't known to us as a bad crash area," Troy told Lake FM. "It's around driver behaviour and making sure that our drivers on the road travelling to the speed limits are actually not taking risks and overtaking when they shouldn't be overtaking, making sure they have 100 metres visibility at the end of their passing manoeuvres."
According to NZTA crash data, in the 5 years ending December 2024, there were 2 people killed and 9 people seriously injured in the 100KM/H zone that stretches from the Napier Taupō roundabout to the end of Rangitaiki.
