More than 20 sheep were killed after a car ploughed into a
stray flock northeast of Wairoa.
Emergency services were alerted at 9.35pm on Friday and
police, a Wairoa Volunteer Fire Brigade crew and a St John
Ambulance rushed to the scene on State Highway 2 near the
Whakaki Lagoon.
Some of the animals were still pinned beneath the vehicle,
some were strewn across the road and other injured sheep were
also on the highway or in drains beside the road.
Some had to be destroyed by the farmer who owned the sheep
and who was understood to have been unaware they were on the
road until told of the accident.
No one in the northbound BMW car was injured, although the
protective air bags were activated, said volunteer Senior
Fire Officer Philip Jane, who helped control traffic and then
cleaned the road.
"The car can probably still be repaired,'' he said. ``A bit
of frontal damage, maybe a bit underneath.''
Stock had been cleared to the side of the road by the time
Wairoa District Council animal control representative Henry
Te Rangi arrived, but he said
He understood 25 sheep had been killed. He was unsure how the
sheep got on the road.
"You do get the odd one or two stray on to the road around
there, but 25...? They'd have to have got out somewhere."
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