UPDATE (10 May, 10.15am): The Straits Times (ST) and TODAY reported that the three victims who perished in the New Zealand camper van crash were National University of Singapore (NUS) undergraduates. The university is in touch with their families to provide them with assistance and support.
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New Zealand police revealed that three Singaporeans died in a camper van crash in the country on 17 Apr.
The vehicle had hit a barrier at the intersection of a road at a highway before bursting into flames.
Authorities have referred the victims’ deaths to a coroner.
According to the New Zealand Herald, authorities were able to identify the Singaporean victims, two of whom were 21 years old and another was 24.
Source: New Zealand Herald
Around 1am on 17 Apr, emergency services received a call from the crash site on Te Moana Road, near the town of Geraldine.
Source: New Zealand Herald
The rental van had hit a barrier at the road’s intersection at State Highway 79. It then burst into flames.
One of the occupants in the car called emergency services after the accident occurred, the New Zealand Herald confirmed.
Eleven volunteer firefighters responded to the crash and met the evening after for a debrief on the incident.
Source: New Zealand Herald
They were each offered individual counselling through Fire and Emergency NZ.
Speaking to the New Zealand Herald the week before, Geraldine Volunteer Fire Brigade chief Graeme Mould described it as “one of the most severe” operations he had responded to.
“It was a traumatic event. None of us had been to anything that major in recent times,” he said.
This is not the first time a camper van crash in New Zealand has killed Singaporeans.
The Straits Times (ST) reports that in May 2017, a Singaporean couple died after the camper van they were travelling in collided with another vehicle on a highway.
Both died on the spot, with a coroner’s report stating that the driver, one of the couple, might have been tired.
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Featured image adapted from the New Zealand Herald.
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