One dead, three injured as shared bike and car collide in Martinborough

A person has died after a crash between a shared bike and car in Martinborough.

A witness has described people laying on the road in the 'shocking' aftermath of a crash between a four-seater bicycle and a car near vineyards in Martinborough.

Wellington District Road Policing Manager, Inspector Brad Allen confirmed a person died at the scene.

"The deceased was critically injured but died at the scene before they could be airlifted to hospital. Three other people, also on the bike, suffered serious injuries," Allen said.

Allen extended police's "thoughts, aroha and condolences" to the family and loved ones of the deceased person.

The crash happened in a 100 km/h zone, but residents said there had been roadworks on the road recently.

A spokesperson for Life Flight said helicopters from Wellington and Palmerston North were called to the scene just after 10.45am.

They confirmed two people were flown to Wellington Hospital following the crash.

Owner of Indi Bike hire company, Wayde Mines said he was "devastated" to learn of the incident.

Mines said the bike was picked up by a couple who he understood may have been tourists from the UK before they met up with their companions.

"I met the people. Hired the bike to them. Off they went happy.

"I'm absolutely devastated. I'm worried for the people involved. It's a beautiful day in Martinborough. The bikes are easily seen. It's unbelievable that it's happened," Mines said.

Mines said he rushed to the scene of the crash after hearing from locals there had been an incident and Fire and Emergency staff were able to tell him enough for him to learn it was one of his.

"It's a tragedy. It's terrible. I've been hiring bikes for 10 years and nothing like this has ever happened before. Not even scuffs and bumps," he said.

Police said they were called to Puruatanga Road, between Regent Street and Todds Road, about 10.45am.

The road is home to a number of the area's most popular vineyards and restaurants.

A couple touring the vineyards on a two-person bike said they were "pretty freaked out" and were definitely cycling more cautiously now.

"We're definitely become a lot safer, the man told RNZ. "We've been following the road rules... but at the same time, after hearing about the accident, it's something that we are a lot more worried about.

"Just keeping to the side, and keeping aware of all the cars nearby, and because of the accident, it's definitely affected us.

They said a winery owner alerted them to the crash and told them to be extra careful.

Grant Wagner, a barman at Karahui, said the the town gets packed with people 'pretty trollied on bikes' on the weekend but there had hardly ever been a crash.

"It doesn't happen that often. There's a lot of bikes on the weekend...and there's never incidents, whereas this was pretty bad, on a beautiful day like this."

"It seems a little odd because it's pretty safe, it's pretty clear, it's not bushy and I think someone was going really fast," he said.

Wagner said town was really quiet with everyone "saving themselves" for Valentines Day tomorrow.

Resident Phil McArthur was one of the first on the scene and described it as "shocking".

"I was just heading down the road ... and then I saw a scene where there were four people lying on side of the road, with a pretty written off bike," he said.

"There was about five or six people that got there before me, and basically we had to give first aid to a couple of, you know, pretty serious injuries, which was not very nice."

The people seemed "severely concussed" and had "injuries you'd expect if a car hit a bike at a reasonable speed".

McArthur grabbed a first aid kit from his car and said he and others who had stopped to help could not do much, but did what they could to keep those injured comfortable until emergency services arrived.

Staff from Martinborough Medical Centre arrived quickly, followed by Fire and Emergency, then ambulances and helicopters, he said.

"As soon as the emergency services got there, I think they figured out pretty quickly that they needed some some extra help, and by the time I'd left [about 20 minutes later] the helicopter was there."

McArthur did not wish to speculate on how serious the crash could be or how it happened, but said "it wasn't nice to come across."

He was a bit shaken.

"You feel a little bit, sort of absent minded I suppose, and you sort of ... reflect on a few things," he said.

"It's not nice to ever come across anything like that, and you just really feel for the people lying on the ground that were injured."

The driver - who was uninjured - was being spoken to by police.

Community board member Karen Krogh said it was an accident waiting to happen.

There are a number of vineyards and cellar doors on Puruatanga Road, and people often hire bikes to ride between them and taste wines.

They shared the road with vehicles travelling between 70 and 100 kilometres an hour, which was a dangerous combination, said Krogh.

"I feel sick today because it's like, it was an inevitability that something could be a tragedy," she said.

"This is one of my things that I wanted to get some action on right when I started on the board, and was concerned about the safety on this road and the mix of bikes and traffic and alcohol."

Krogh said the community board had discussed reduced speed limits during cellar door opening hours, and cycleways on the road, but there had been no action yet.

"When you've got people visiting the cellar doors, especially on these multi bikes because you've got that sort of momentum problem, that they're very heavy with the people and the bike itself, and they just can't react quickly," she said.

"I just hope that ... something will be done now to mitigate all this danger 'cause it's been fairly obvious in a way that we'd come to grief at some point."

The mayor of South Wairarapa said the accident was the first involving the multi-passenger bikes that he was aware of in the area.

Martin Connelly said his thoughts were with the injured people and also the volunteers in the area who would have been the first response to the crash.

"This is a very, very popular road with cyclists. People like to come and rent these [shared] bikes - it's a fun day out. It's a reasonably straight road, it's got a good surface on it, it's wide and I can only imagine that a terrible mistake has happened on it at the wrong time and this tragedy has occurred," Connelly said.

He said the roads around Martinborough offered plenty of separation for cyclists on standard bicycles and he felt the onus was on motorists to respect other road users rights.

"Cyclists and pedestrians are perfectly entitled to use the roading network and cars do have to respect that. There's plenty of room for everybody to have a good time but please be careful," Connelly said.

The road had been closed and members of the public are asked to avoid the area.

Wellington Free ambulance and Fire and Emergency declined to comment and said police would lead the response to the crash.

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