Car was ‘going fast’, shocked witnesses say, in fatal crash in central Taupō, one dead and two critical

Saturday, 30 May 2026

A witness to a fatal crash in Taupō’s busy downtown area on Friday evening says he struggles to find the words to describe the carnage he saw.

One person died at the scene of the two-vehicle crash in Taupō, on Te Heuheu Road, that occurred just before 6.30pm. Two others were critically injured, police said.

The street was part of the town’s busy shopping and restaurant district, and part of a low speed zone. The crash was at the Ruapehu Street roundabout.

Eyewitness Brad Boyce had ducked in to town to get dinner when he saw the crash, telling Stuff he saw the tree on the roundabout shake when it was hit by one of the vehicles.

He said he called 111 as he walked toward the cars, where people were already desperately trying to gain entry to the vehicle that lay on the roundabout.

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Boyce said there was a male driver and a female passenger, with the driver unresponsive and the female passenger responsive and clearly in pain. He later saw the female passenger being removed on a stretcher.

Boyce told Stuff the juxtaposition of the diners continuing their meals in the busy restaurant area, completely unaware of the destruction on the street outside, left him shocked.

“I struggled to find words. I cried,” he said.

As he left the scene, he saw a tarpaulin had been placed over the car on the roundabout.

A bang, and then rush to help

A Palmerston North woman was in Taupō on the way to a holiday weekend in the Bay of Plenty when she saw the chaotic event play out in front of her, and rushed to help.

The woman told Stuff she was waiting in a line of cars to enter the roundabout when she heard a bang and saw a silver car collide with a small grey SUV.

Another blue vehicle was clipped by the impact, and the SUV was forced across the roundabout, she said, adding engine parts had been flung 15 metres down Te Heuheu Street by the force of the crash.

The witness told Stuff she and her husband rushed from their car to help, and were first on the scene, running to the SUV as it was closest.

She said the car’s windows appeared fogged, making it impossible to see who was inside.

Her husband and others picked up bricks that had been knocked loose from the crash and began trying to smash the rear window.

Breaking through, they saw an older woman in the driver’s seat.

I kept saying “stay awake, we're here”, the witness told Stuff.

“At that time it was chaos, people trying to pry open the door and smash more windows,” she said, adding that the driver appeared responsive but in pain.

Emergency services were on the scene within minutes and when she saw some of activity around the silver vehicle, she “knew something bad had happened”.

‘Almighty bang’

Stacey O’Donnell lives about 800m from the crash site and told Stuff she heard an “almighty bang” just before 6.30pm.

“My heart sank because I knew that was a bad one,” she said.

She said it was a high speed crash from the sounds she heard, and shortly afterwards the wail of sirens filled the air.

Another local woman said she was walking west down Te Heuheu street with her 14-year-old son when a car sped past her going what she guessed was over 100kph.

“I thought f…, that car is going fast. It did not stop or slow down for the traffic lights, I saw it go around other cars on the road and then straight towards the roundabout,” she said.

“Then we heard a massive crash,” the woman, who asked to remain anonymous, told Stuff.

She said by the time she walked down to the crash site she found a chaotic scene around the roundabout, with emergency services already in attendance and a crowd of spectators looking on.

She said she was shocked by what she saw and the crash was “not something you would ever expect to happen” at that location.

Fire and Emergency NZ said they sent two trucks to the scene after found three people trapped in two vehicles.

A spokesperson for Hato Hone St John said three ambulances, one rapid response unit, and two helicopters attended the scene.

Two patients in a critical condition were airlifted from the scene, one to Waikato Hospital and one to Rotorua Hospital.

Two patients in a moderate condition were treated at the scene.

The road remains closed on Saturday morning while a scene examination is conducted and motorists are advised to avoid the area.