Husband searching for missing wife comes across her car at wrong-way Wellington motorway crash scene

Wednesday, 20 January 2021

Gideon Te Kahika came across his wife Genna’s crash on the Wellington Urban Motorway on Tuesday morning. The couple have two children, Gideon Jr, 16, and Tyler, 4.

A husband looking for his wife after she didn't return home from dropping her brother at work, came across her mangled car at a Wellington crash scene.

Genna Te Kahika was driving brother Jeremy Hatley to work around 4.20 on Tuesday morning when her vehicle was hit by another, which had travelled 10 kilometres the wrong way on State Highway 2 from Petone.

The two occupants of the other vehicle died at the scene on the flyover between the Molesworth St and Aotea Quay on-ramps.

Genna Te Kahika, a mother of two and childcare worker, was seriously injured, along with her brother. Both are being treated in Wellington Regional Hospital’s ICU.

Her husband, Gideon Te Kahika, said he had fallen back to sleep after she left their Brooklyn home at 4am.

Two people died and two were seriously injured after a car went the wrong way along Wellington Urban Motorway.

* Car travelled wrong way on Wellington motorway for 10km before crash, leaving two dead, two critical

Genna Te Kahika, a mother of two and childcare worker, sustained serious injuries in the crash. She is pictured with her husband and son Tyler.

By 6am, he thought it was odd she hadn’t returned and tried to reach her on her cellphone, but she had left it at home.

Wondering if she had run out of fuel on the motorway, Te Kahika set off with the couple’s 4-year-old son Tyler, to try to find her.

“We got down to the Terrace Tunnel and saw that the tunnel was closed, and I was like ‘oh what, s---!’”

He then drove to Hutt Rd, and realised there had been an accident when he saw emergency services.

Genna Te Kahika was seriously injured in a head-on collision in Wellington on Tuesday, which killed two.

“I went all the way up to Johnsonville to turn around and come back down the motorway, and I was just hoping it wasn’t her car … Then I got up close and I saw the car.”

Te Kahika said he pulled over on the motorway, jumped out of the car and started asking where Genna and Hatley were.

“The cop was like ‘Come over here! Come over here!’ and I was like ‘Just tell me now! Are they dead?’ Then he was like ‘Nah, they’re in hospital’ and that was a relief, but I didn’t know what the injuries were, so I wasn’t too sure what I was going to see when I saw them,” he said.

The cause of the crash remains unknown, with police saying inquiries into the circumstances are ongoing.

Te Kahika said he then “gunned it to the hospital”.

The siblings sustained serious injuries but escaped without a scratch to their heads or faces, Te Kahika said.

He believed their seatbelts, which had left marks on their bodies from the impact, were what had saved their lives.

His wife underwent a six-hour surgery after suffering a broken hip, fibia, leg, ankle and broke “just about every bone in her foot”, Te Kahika said.

Hatley underwent two surgeries and suffered broken bones in his leg, multiple cracked ribs, and damaged an artery in his heart.

“The doctors said they will be okay, it’s just going to be a long recovery,” Te Kahika said. “Yesterday was quite a stressful day and this morning it was all sinking in.”

The cause of the crash remains unknown, with police inquiries still ongoing.

On Wednesday, a police spokeswoman said the deaths had been referred to the coroner.

Another family member, Ruby Te Kahika, visited Genna in hospital on Tuesday and was surprised at how responsive she was. 'She is as tough as.”