Elderly man's unit destroyed by car site of three previous crashes

RNZ News

08-05-2025

The home of a Whangārei man in his 80s was destroyed when an allegedly stolen car landed on the unit's roof.
Photo:
RNZ / Susan Edmunds
A Whangārei home destroyed after a
speeding car crashed through its roof
had been hit three times before by vehicles flying off the same stretch of road, a relative of a former owner says.
She fears it will happen again and is urging the council to build a crash barrier or realign the road, before luck runs out and someone is killed.
Around 11pm on Tuesday a car police say was travelling at high speed left Mill Road, smashed through a fence, sailed over one unit on Millers Lane and landed on another.
The car crashed through the roof into the living room, which was completely destroyed.
Police said if the owner hadn't been away that night - his partner told RNZ he was in his 80s and in hospital at the time - he almost certainly would have died.
A relative of the unit's previous owner, who did not want to be named, was distressed to learn of the latest crash.
"I'm really upset to see it's happened again, but I'm not surprised either," she said.
The woman said one of her relatives was a previous resident of the Millers Lane unit.
She had enjoyed living there for many years, despite the unit being hit by cars three times.
On two occasions damage was relatively minor but a 2018 crash demolished part of her bedroom and could have been fatal if she had been home at the time.
After that crash the family lobbied the Whangārei District Council for a safety barrier on Mill Road, spoke to council engineers, and made direct contact with then mayor Sheryl Mai.
"We kept going back and saying, 'What are you doing about it?'"
The woman said council contractors resurfaced the road to improve grip, and engineers told her they were going to look at the corner because that seemed to be part of the problem.
"I don't think houses should have been built there in the first place. They need to try to build a barrier or realign the corner," the woman said.
Council transport strategy and planning lead Nick Marshall said staff investigated options for reducing crash risk in 2019.
The carnage from Tuesday's crash.
Photo:
RNZ / Susan Edmunds
A crash barrier was considered, but building one that was effective would be difficult due to the complex geometry and steep slope between Millers Lane and Mill Road/Whareora Road.
The road would need to be widened and a retaining wall built to allow the guard-rail to fit, and the footpath on Whareora Road would need to be relocated.
"In short, there's not enough ground at the edge of the road to hold up any barrier without building significant foundations," he said.
"We also have concerns about the effectiveness of a barrier here, given the angle at which cars seem to leave this part of the road."
Marshall said guard-rails were designed to be effective when hit at angles of less than 30 degrees, but in the crashes to date the car would have hit at 90 degrees.
At that angle, any vehicle travelling at high speed would likely punch through the barrier and still end up in the property.
Despite those challenges the council sought funding from NZTA in the 2024-27 Regional Land Transport Plan, but was unsuccessful.
The council would continue to seek funding for safety improvements at that location in future Long Term Plans, he said.
After a 2012 crash, the unit's owner at that time told a reporter she hoped the council would install a barrier.
She also had ideas for what should happen to the three young men who crashed into her property in the early hours of New Year's Day.
"I think they need a good spanking, and made to clear up the mess because I have to get help to do that."
In this week's crash, the driver fled the scene and could not be tracked by a police dog.
Police said they were "following lines of enquiry".
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