NZ News
Mother Frances Latu-Vailea killed in Waiuku crash leaves behind three children including young baby
A man who lost his wife, five-year-old daughter and niece in a triple-fatal crash on the way home from school wants to thank the first responders, and the wider community for their support.
Frances Latu-Vailea, her five-year-old daughter Oneahi Vailea and seven-year-old niece Marly Tulua died when their car left Masters Road and crashed into a culvert in wetland on Tuesday afternoon.
A Givealittle page set up for the families said the “devastating accident” had left Latu-Vailea’s husband, Amanaki Vailea suddenly widowed and the sole caregiver for their three sons, aged eight weeks, two, and 12.
A family spokesperson told RNZ Latu-Vailea had just picked up her daughter and niece from school and was on her way home when they crashed.
The crash site where three people died in a fatal accident on Masters Road, Waiuku. Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel
- Do you know more? Email sam.sherwood@rnz.co.nz
The spokesperson said Amanaki Vailea was “in shock”, but wanted to thank those were first on the scene, including emergency services and the wider community for their support.
“He just really wants to thank everyone, because he just doesn’t have the capacity to do it himself,” they said.
Latu-Vailea’s “whole life was being a mum,” the spokesperson said.
“Both [Vailea] and her work really hard to provide the four kids with the best life possible that they could. She just did everything for everyone,” the spokesperson said.
“They’re just the most loving family and always helping anyone.. it’s just not very fair.”
Oneahi Vailea had only started school last term, the spokesperson said.
“She was just bright and loved animals and dinosaurs… she was always happy and singing.”
The spokesperson said the fundraiser was created to help the families so they can take time off work to grieve.
The page said the money would help give Latu-Vailea’s husband time to grieve without the burden of immediate financial pressures such as the mortgage and household bills. It would also provide essential support as he “navigates caring for their young boys and processing such an unimaginable loss”, it said.
Donations would also help support Tulua’s family who are “also mourning deeply while caring for their own young baby and facing the pain of losing Marly, Frances, and Oneahi”.
“No words can ease the pain, but your kindness and support can help lighten the heavy load these families are carrying right now,” the Givealittle page said.
“Any contribution, big or small, will make a difference.”
Deputy Registrar Frances Latu-Vailea, right, with Judge Tania Sharkey, celebrating Tongan Language Week at the Pukekohe District Court, August 2024. Photo: Instagram / Pacific Lawyers Association
Latu-Vailea worked as a court registry officer, and the head of the Ministry of Justice said staff were devastated at the sudden death of their colleague.
Chief executive Andrew Kibblewhite said Latu-Vailea was a court registry officer for the Family Court, primarily based at Pukekohe District Court.
He said she worked in many locations including North Shore, Manukau and Papakura, and the tragedy would have a huge impact on many people.
Kibblewhile said he and his staff offered their deepest condolences to Latu-Vailea’s immediate and extended family.
“We are all thinking of Frances’ family, and our wider Auckland kaimahi, and offering our support during this very difficult time,” he said.
The crash site where three people died in a fatal accident on Masters Road, Waiuku. Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel
The deaths have also sent shockwaves through the tight-knit Waiuku community.
“It’s pretty devastating actually. It’s a small town, most people know someone who knows them if they don’t know them themselves,” local Jennie Tapp said.
“The fact that it was a woman and two children, it just blows your mind.”
Another resident Inga Anja Noom said Masters Road had a bad reputation.
“We all feel sick because usually in a small town like this everyone knows somebody and it’s a horrible stretch of road and it’s not the first and it probably won’t be the last. But yeah, no, it’s heartbreaking.”
Noom said it was particularly dangerous in wet weather.
“It’s quite narrow, it’s windy in the start up to it and then it’s just one long stretch with humps in the road and bridges and stuff,” she said.
“And with weather like this in wintertime, the creeks are completely full on either side, it’s really bad.”
Locals say the narrow, bumpy road will continue causing accidents until speed limits are enforced.
Masters Road falls on the border between Auckland and Waikato and was a concern for both regions’ councillors.
Waikato district councillor Peter Thomson said it was often used as a shortcut around the more tightly managed main road between Waiuku and Pukekohe.
“I’ve heard that it’s been used as a bypass to the Waiuku-Pukekohe road, so people can feel that they can travel faster on this road rather than the Pukekohe-Waiuku road, which has got a number of speed cameras on it and is only 80 [kilometres per hour],” he said.
Andy Baker, the councillor for Auckland’s Franklin Ward which contained Waiuku, said the road was narrow and bumpy.
“This road is predominantly straight, it runs from both ends, it’s basically a straight line but it’s very undulating and from what I can see where the crash was, it’s in a dip, and there’s a lot of trees around,” Baker said.
Masters Road sign, the road where three people died in a fatal accident. Photo: RNZ/Marika Khabazi
But Baker said it was too early to determine if the road was a factor in the fatal crash.
“I think it’s a little bit premature maybe to say the road’s at fault here or there’s an issue with the road,” he said.
“I know that some locals have been concerned about some things, whether they were contributing to the crash, we won’t know until the Serious Crash Unit do their report and eventually it’ll run through a coroner’s court.”
Resident Noom said Masters Road still needed speed cameras like the main Waiuku-Pukekohe road.
“Well if they’re going to do it on one side, they’ll probably have to do it the other, and everyone will hate me saying that but this is what’s happening,” she said.
“We had a crash there two weeks ago, they walked away from that one. We had a death there last year and it won’t be the last.”
She said the crashes would continue until motorists were given a reason to slow down.
The Givealittle page can be found here.
Source: RNZ
Latest News
Opportunities to mitigate multi-million-dollar RNZ budget blowout likely missed – experts
Multiple opportunities to identify and mitigate a multi-million-dollar budget blowout at RNZ appear have been missed, according to the former executive director at Audit New Zealand.
The public broadcaster on Monday revealed a near $12 million shock financial loss after a litany of financial blunders, which will now lead to sweeping job cuts.
The $11.8m loss is more than 25 times the $470,000 RNZ had expected to lose over the year to June.
CEO Paul Thompson took responsibility for the result, and said internal reports gave an inaccurate picture of the finances, meaning the scale of the loss only became clear in October.
RNZ’s former chief financial officer Hilary Parker resigned unexpectedly in early October.
The board said it would commission an independent review into what went wrong.
Independent contractor Stephen Walker, who left the Audit Office earlier this year, said the size of the loss was surprising, as was the length of time it took to identify it – months after the financial year ended.
Supplied / OAG
“Probably more of a concern is that they had seemingly been unaware that they were running up a significant deficit until they were in the preparation stage of their annual report in October.”
Walker said public entities typically produced monthly financial reports.
An interim audit also took place before the end of the financial year, he said, but if the organisation hadn’t identified significant losses at that stage, the auditor could also be in the dark.
“It seems that there’s a real weakness in forecasting and budgeting that’s occurred here and that the monthly accounts, when they’re produced, either haven’t identified these significant variances against budget or the magnitude of them really hasn’t come to light until right towards the end of the financial year,” Walker said.
“And really at that point, there’s no opportunity for the chief executive, the leadership team to take, and the board to take, any corrective action because the year has effectively been completed.”
Walker said the “significant miss” was difficult to account for given it was more than 10 percent of RNZ’s total funding.
He said based on RNZ’s annual report, financial complexity didn’t appear to be a factor.
“This $11.8m loss isn’t made up of one particular item … it seems to have been contributed to by a number of separate expense lines running over budget. So I don’t think it’s necessarily to do with complexity.”
Among the errors, RNZ wrongly counted $2m from land sales as income in its budget. Staff costs also came in $3.2m over budget, including $1.4m in redundancy payments.
Professor at Auckland University’s business school Norman Wong said based on media reports the issues identified were “significant and troubling”.
Supplied / University of Auckland
“But recognising the sale of land as income in their budget is a basic error that one would have expected to have been caught and corrected well before it got to this point.”
With funding reductions at RNZ over the past two years, Walker expected greater scrutiny of financial results.
“Virtually every public entity has had their annual budget reduced. And so you would expect … the leadership team on a monthly basis and board – I’m not sure how frequently the board will consider the information – but you would expect them to be interrogating the results on a regular basis throughout the year,” he said.
Walker said initiating an independent review was the correct course of action and that he’d want to understand what information the leadership team and the board were regularly receiving.
He said he’d “love to say” surprising financial results were rare, but conceded they occured on a semi-frequent basis during his time leading the Audit Office.
“The benefit of independent scrutiny by the Audit Office – and the auditors providing that support to the Auditor General – [is] that the reporting is fairly presented at the end of the year, whether it’s good, bad or ugly.”
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