Sourced Content
Radio New Zealand
Sunday, January 15, 2017
Four people have been flown to hospital with serious injuries after a bus crashed near Tongariro National Park in “atrocious” weather.
The 11 other passengers on the bus suffered minor to moderate injuries when it crashed at 8 am at the intersection of State Highway 47 and 48.
The bus travelled six metres down the bank into some water.
One person had to be freed by emergency services after they became trapped in the partially submerged bus.
St John Ambulance said that two of the seriously injured people was being airlifted to Rotorua Hospital while the other two were being flown to Hamilton.
Eleven others were being taken by ambulances to various hospitals in the central North Island.
The passengers were a part of a group who had been staying at the nearby Chateau Tongariro.
A Chateau spokesperson said that some staff members had been involved in the rescue operation.
Dangerous Corner
Mountain Air pilot Tony Neville said that he had been in touch with a workmate who lives locally to find out what had happened.
He said that “the sirens had gone and everything was happening up there.”
The intersection where the crash had happened was “quite a dangerous corner,” Mr Neville said.
Weather conditions in the area were “absolutely atrocious” this morning, he said.
“It was a major storm in the district. Not nice.”
Thick fog in the area earlier delayed a rescue helicopter from getting to the scene.
The site of the crash is on the border of the National Park and nearby Tongariro Forest Park, at an intersection that leads into the national park.
The serious crash unit had been sent to the scene, the police said.
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