The Life Flight helicopter transporting a woman from Castlepoint to Wairarapa Hospital on Sunday afternoon. PHOTO/OWEN BENGSTON
More caution needed to prevent injuries
TOM TAYLOR
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A mother and her child were washed off the reef at Castlepoint Scenic Reserve on Sunday afternoon in the second incident of its kind in three weeks.
The pair fell into the basin and were “banged up a bit,” Castlepoint Voluntary Rural Fire Force Chief Anders Crofoot said.
The Westpac Life Flight helicopter transported the mother to Wellington Hospital with moderate injuries.
A Wellington Free Ambulance spokesperson said that the child was classified at Status 4 and did not need to be transported by helicopter.
The father of the child had driven them to the hospital to join the child’s mother, Crofoot said.
Crofoot said that when he attended the scene, the waves had been breaking over the reef regularly.
“There are lots of signs there, but people don’t seem to be able to realise how risky it actually is.”
Crofoot suggested that to make more of a statement, the Department of Conservation warning signs could take a lead from industrial workplaces and display the number of months since the last injury on the rocks.
“Right now, it would be zero,” he said.
The DOC website stated that the reef at Castlepoint was extremely dangerous, with unpredictable sea conditions, and called on visitors to beware of tidal and rogue waves.
