Grieving mum: ‘Fix the potholes’

A mother who believes a pothole caused her son’s death wants the country’s roads improved before anyone else loses a loved one as she has.

Steph Pukepuke’s son Thomas died in October on the Kaimai Ranges. He was driving home after helping family shift furniture. Hamilton-based Pukepuke said police told her it appeared his car blew a tyre in a pothole, making him lose control, cross the centreline and crash into another vehicle.

The Coroner has not ruled on the cause of death, with the office confirming the case is still active.

The Waikato University student was six weeks short of his 20th birthday. He had just finished his second year at Waikato University studying English, Media and Political Science, and won the Sam Barnes Screen and Media prize for 2022.

Pukepuke remembers October 28, a Friday morning when Thomas was heading to Tauranga.

‘‘Tommy gave me a kiss at 7.30am, and said, I will see you tonight. I said, love you son, drive safe.

‘‘He had gone to shift furniture, and then he had lunch with [his] aunty and nana. He sent us a text at 1pm saying ‘‘I am at lunch with Nana, and that is the last text we ever got.’’

The crash happened about 4.30pm, near the summit of the Kaimai Ranges.

Pukepuke was hosting a wedding at their Whatawhata home at the weekend, and a police officer arrived during the prewedding barbecue to tell them that Thomas had died in a crash.

The other driver was airlifted to Waikato Hospital.

Pukepuke said she was not angry. ‘‘I love him and I miss him and I will every day, but getting angry won’t bring him back.’’

She has decided to speak out as 377 families also lost loved ones on the roads last year and she doesn’t want more to know the feeling.

‘‘Let’s hope that no-one else has to go through this. They have all this new stuff, but they’re not fixing up all this old stuff and there is a lot more traffic.’’

Pukepuke would like to see better funding to fix roads.

‘‘Let’s do something about it. I don’t want to lay blame, but I don’t want to be angry, anger doesn’t achieve anything. I just want people to know it’s not okay for your kid to die like that.’’

Pukepuke said Thomas was considering his options after university, including becoming a teacher and more recently thought of teaching English in Japan or also the possibility of being a speech-writer at Parliament.

‘‘He was really coming out of his shell and ready to move on.’’

The family have only driven past the spot once after the crash. Pukepuke said it had been resurfaced.

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency said it was aware of the fatal crash but could not comment on the potential cause of death.

‘‘What we do know is that at approximately 4.17pm on October 28, a westbound vehicle crossed the double yellow centreline on a left-hand bend, crossing the eastbound passing lane into the (lefthand) eastbound lane and collided with a second vehicle.

‘‘There were no signs of emergency braking by either vehicle. The 19-year-old male driver of the first vehicle died at the scene, the 31-year-old female driver of the second vehicle sustained serious injuries.’’

Waka Kotahi had no record of any unrepaired potholes at the crash site, which is described as 500 metres west of the Kaimai summit and 1.5 kilometres away from the site where a number of potholes opened up in heavy rain on September 30.

‘‘Contractors had completed the majority of surface repairs to areas where potholes occurred on the Tauranga side of the Kaimai Range, by October 12, with the final patch complete on November 3.’’

SH29 over the Kaimai Range is a high volume section of road which sees a lot of heavy vehicle traffic.

Contractors completed significant resurfacing and rebuilding of the road last summer, which included laying sections of structural asphalt to improve the strength and durability of the road, Waka Kotahi said. Further resurfacing and rebuilding treatments were planned.

In October, Waka Kotahi began an extensive summer programme which was to see more than 700 lane kilometres in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty being rebuilt or resealed, equating to around 14% of the regional state highway network. However, a wet start to summer has impacted on the programme.

‘‘Prior to Christmas our East Waikato contractor predominantly focused on their large reseal programme across the Coromandel Peninsula, and selected sites such as the structural asphalt application on SH27 in Matamata. Over the coming months they will be working across their network, including resealing sections of SH29 and SH24 at the foot of the Kaimai Range.’’

The programme’s work was meant to finish at the end of March.