Taranaki Crash: Losing four friends in Waverley crash 'just like losing family'

When Stu Buckman arrived at the Waverley Bowling Club on Wednesday, he thought the police waiting there for him were there to do fingerprinting after a recent break-in.

But when they asked if he knew the family of his good friends Ian and Rosalie Porteous, he says his heart just dropped.

"Well, I just clicked straight away," he says.

He had heard "siren after siren" in the town earlier - the blaring calls of fire, ambulance and police making their way to what is New Zealand's worst road crash in 13 years.

Life for Stu Buckman will never be the same, after four of his friends were killed in a car crash near Waverley on Wednesday.

But at that stage, Buckman, who has lived in Waverley for 50 years, had no inkling the tragedy had stolen the lives of four of his friends.

About 11.10am, Ian Porteous, 80, Rosalie Porteous, 76, Ora Keene, 84, who is Ian's sister, and Brenda Williams,79, died instantly after a head-on crash with another vehicle about 300 metres north of the intersection of State Highway 3 and Ihupuku Rd, just north of Waverley, a town which has about 860 residents.

Passengers in the other car were also killed.  Nivek Madams, 8, died in Waikato Hospital on Thursday morning, while her eight-week-old baby sister Shady Thompson and her stepfather, Jeremy Thompson, 28, lost their lives shortly after the crash.

Nivek's mother, Ani Nohinohi, remains in a critical condition in Wellington Hospital. On Thursday night, a police spokeswoman said there had been no change to her condition after she had been flown to Wellington with critical injuires. "My understanding is that there is no change to her condition as per the media release yesterday, but that she is stable."

Like many in the South Taranaki town and beyond, Buckman is still struggling to come to terms with the enormity of the loss.

"It's just been an absolute shock. It's just like losing family  I just don't know what to say.

"It's just mind-boggling really, I just can't take it in," the 67-year-old says.

Four of his friends, gone in the blink of an eye.

​Buckman says he ventured into town on Thursday morning and felt a definite change in mood among some of the residents.

"It's just right down. They just didn't want to talk about it."

He says while the deaths were a real blow to the town's spirits, it has always been, and will continue, to be a resilient place.

"It is, we've had to be," Buckman says.

Getting used to not having his friends around was going to be difficult for Buckman, who lives alone.

"I have to cope. I'm by myself here. They're always going to be on my mind now."

Buckman won't be alone in his grief. 

Stu Buckman knew all four of the Waverley crash victims and says he is still struggling to comprehend the death of his friends.

Family members, friends, neighbours and emergency service workers are among those now dealing with the aftermath.

South Taranaki Mayor Ross Dunlop has seen his fair share of tragic loss on the roads during his time helping to govern the district.  

A councillor since 1989 before being elected as mayor in 2007, he has seen firsthand just how wide and deep feelings can run.

He was mayor when Chantelle Giles, John Bayne and his sister Cherylene Bayne, also known as Cherry, were killed after a tanker and car the trio were in collided on Pātea's Egmont St in February 2016.  Sadly, the driver of the milk tanker, Michael Fairclough, died from a suspected suicide four days later.

Flowers were left at the crash scene on Thursday.

The tragedy sent shockwaves through the town, similarly to when three young people - Paul Cowper, 21, Aaron Hurley, 22, and Rochelle Meads, 22, died in Normanby in August 2005, after the van they were travelling in was slammed into by drunk driver Raymond Hansen, who was later sent to prison.

At the time he was a councillor but the ripple effects of that were widespread and long-felt, he says.

"That impacted right across the community. There were just so many connections that were involved in that terrible accident."

For the people of Waverley and the affected families and friends, he imagines the feeling right now would be very similar.

"There is obviously that instant shock and trauma and disbelief that goes through the community."

Friends and family of the deceased visited the crash site on Thursday.

Dunlop says while it can seem quite dark in the beginning, staring into the bleakness of such tragedy, it has always been his experience that people rally to help and support each other. 

"You see the best come out in people," he says.

"People step up that you don't expect."

In the first 24 hours after the crash, he was fielding calls from people offering assistance or wanting to provide support from afar to all those affected.

"There are lovely things that can happen - it makes you realise how good people are."

 - Stuff