Waverley crash: victim Rosalie Porteous survived serious crash a year ago

One of the seven people who died in Wednesday's horrific Waverley crash had survived a serious crash up the road a year ago.

In May 2017, Rosalie Porteous was critically injured in a crash between a car, a truck and a motorcycle on State Highway 3 in Pātea.

She had to be cut free from the wreckage by firefighters, and was air-lifted to Whanganui Hospital.

Waverley Fire Station chief Alan Hickford was one of the rescuers.

He was also there on Wednesday, at the two-car crash on SH3 which killed four of his friends: Rosalie, her husband Ian Porteous, his sister Ora Keene and their friend Brenda Williams.

Travelling in the other car, 8-year-old Nivek Madams, her 8-week-old sister Shady Thompson and Shady's father Jeremy Thompson, 28, were also killed. Ani Nohinohi, Nivek and Shady's mother, was this morning in a critical condition in Wellington Hospital.

Hickford said the small community of Waverley was in "shock".

"There are some shocked people around town, that's for sure.

"I knew those four really well. Everyone in the town knew them. They were members of the bowling club, and a few other groups. They were good people."

In small towns, firefighters were often dealing with people they knew, he said.