{"id":14333,"date":"2025-07-17T12:00:05","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T00:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=14333"},"modified":"2025-07-17T12:00:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T00:00:05","slug":"mother-frances-latu-vailea-killed-in-waiuku-crash-leaves-behind-three-children-including-young-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=14333","title":{"rendered":"Mother Frances Latu-Vailea killed in Waiuku crash leaves behind three children including young baby"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A man who lost his wife, five-year-old daughter and niece in a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/national\/566973\/emergency-services-at-scene-of-serious-crash-in-rural-south-auckland-s-waiuku\">triple-fatal crash<\/a>\u00a0on the way home from school wants to thank the first responders, and the wider community for their support.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>A Givealittle page set up for the families said the &#8220;devastating accident&#8221; had left Latu-Vailea&#8217;s husband, Amanaki Vailea suddenly widowed and the sole caregiver for their three sons, aged eight weeks, two, and 12.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<div class=\"photo-captioned photo-captioned-full photo-cntr eight_col \"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.rnztools.nz\/rnz\/image\/upload\/s--KRxdLjkr--\/ar_16:10,c_fill,f_auto,g_auto,q_auto,w_1050\/v1752639826\/4K46B4V_IMG_6908_JPG?_a=BACCd2AD\" alt=\"The crash site where 3 people died in a fatal accident on Masters Road, Waiuku.\" width=\"1050\" height=\"700\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\"><span class=\"caption\">The crash site where three people died in a fatal accident on Masters Road, Waiuku.\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Photo:\u00a0RNZ\/Calvin Samuel<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><i>Do you know more? Email<\/i>\u00a0sam.sherwood@rnz.co.nz<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The spokesperson said Amanaki Vailea was &#8220;in shock&#8221;, but wanted to thank those were first on the scene, including emergency services and the wider community for their support.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He just really wants to thank everyone, because he just doesn&#8217;t have the capacity to do it himself,&#8221; they said.<\/p>\n<p>Latu-Vailea&#8217;s &#8220;whole life was being a mum,&#8221; the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;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,&#8221; the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re just the most loving family and always helping anyone.. it&#8217;s just not very fair.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Oneahi Vailea had only started school last term, the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She was just bright and loved animals and dinosaurs&#8230; she was always happy and singing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The spokesperson said the fundraiser was created to help the families so they can take time off work to grieve.<\/p>\n<p>The page said the money would help give Latu-Vailea&#8217;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 &#8220;navigates caring for their young boys and processing such an unimaginable loss&#8221;, it said.<\/p>\n<p>Donations would also help support Tulua&#8217;s family who are &#8220;also mourning deeply while caring for their own young baby and facing the pain of losing Marly, Frances, and Oneahi&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No words can ease the pain, but your kindness and support can help lighten the heavy load these families are carrying right now,&#8221; the Givealittle page said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Any contribution, big or small, will make a difference.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"photo-captioned photo-captioned-third photo-right three_col \"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.rnztools.nz\/rnz\/image\/upload\/s--hrnpJxBF--\/c_scale,f_auto,q_auto,w_288\/v1752705270\/4K44PG3_Latu_Vailea_3_jpg?_a=BACCd2AD\" alt=\"Deputy Registrar Frances Latu-Vailea, right, with Judge Tania Sharkey, celebrating Tongan Language Week at the Pukekohe District Court, pictured in Instagram post from the Pacific Lawyers Association in August 2024.\" width=\"288\" height=\"265\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\"><span class=\"caption\">Deputy Registrar Frances Latu-Vailea, right, with Judge Tania Sharkey, celebrating Tongan Language Week at the Pukekohe District Court, August 2024.\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Photo:\u00a0Instagram \/ Pacific Lawyers Association<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Chief executive Andrew Kibblewhite said Latu-Vailea was a court registry officer for the Family Court, primarily based at Pukekohe District Court.<\/p>\n<p>He said she worked in many locations including North Shore, Manukau and Papakura, and the tragedy would have a huge impact on many people.<\/p>\n<p>Kibblewhile said he and his staff offered their deepest condolences to Latu-Vailea&#8217;s immediate and extended family.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are all thinking of Frances&#8217; family, and our wider Auckland kaimahi, and offering our support during this very difficult time,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"photo-captioned photo-captioned-full photo-cntr eight_col \"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.rnztools.nz\/rnz\/image\/upload\/s--ObKq7sTx--\/ar_16:10,c_fill,f_auto,g_auto,q_auto,w_1050\/v1752639892\/4K46B71_IMG_6903_JPG?_a=BACCd2AD\" alt=\"The crash site where 3 people died in a fatal accident on Masters Road, Waiuku.\" width=\"1050\" height=\"700\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\"><span class=\"caption\">The crash site where three people died in a fatal accident on Masters Road, Waiuku.\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Photo:\u00a0RNZ\/Calvin Samuel<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The deaths have also sent shockwaves through the tight-knit Waiuku community.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s pretty devastating actually. It&#8217;s a small town, most people know someone who knows them if they don&#8217;t know them themselves,&#8221; local Jennie Tapp said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The fact that it was a woman and two children, it just blows your mind.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Another resident Inga Anja Noom said Masters Road had a bad reputation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We all feel sick because usually in a small town like this everyone knows somebody and it&#8217;s a horrible stretch of road and it&#8217;s not the first and it probably won&#8217;t be the last. But yeah, no, it&#8217;s heartbreaking.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Noom said it was particularly dangerous in wet weather.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s quite narrow, it&#8217;s windy in the start up to it and then it&#8217;s just one long stretch with humps in the road and bridges and stuff,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And with weather like this in wintertime, the creeks are completely full on either side, it&#8217;s really bad.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Locals say the narrow, bumpy road will continue causing accidents until\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/national\/567010\/waiuku-residents-call-for-more-speed-cameras-following-fatal-masters-road-crash\">speed limits are enforced<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Masters Road falls on the border between Auckland and Waikato and was a concern for both regions&#8217; councillors.<\/p>\n<p>Waikato district councillor Peter Thomson said it was often used as a shortcut around the more tightly managed main road between Waiuku and Pukekohe.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve heard that it&#8217;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],&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Andy Baker, the councillor for Auckland&#8217;s Franklin Ward which contained Waiuku, said the road was narrow and bumpy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This road is predominantly straight, it runs from both ends, it&#8217;s basically a straight line but it&#8217;s very undulating and from what I can see where the crash was, it&#8217;s in a dip, and there&#8217;s a lot of trees around,&#8221; Baker said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"photo-captioned photo-captioned-full photo-cntr eight_col \"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.rnztools.nz\/rnz\/image\/upload\/s--9rmSRC5h--\/ar_16:10,c_fill,f_auto,g_auto,q_auto,w_1050\/v1752563654\/4K47OJ7_0Z9A8897_jpg?_a=BACCd2AD\" alt=\"Waiuku triple fatality - Masters Road sign\" width=\"1050\" height=\"700\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\"><span class=\"caption\">Masters Road sign, the road where three people died in a fatal accident.\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Photo:\u00a0RNZ\/Marika Khabazi<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>But Baker said it was too early to determine if the road was a factor in the fatal crash.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s a little bit premature maybe to say the road&#8217;s at fault here or there&#8217;s an issue with the road,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I know that some locals have been concerned about some things, whether they were contributing to the crash, we won&#8217;t know until the Serious Crash Unit do their report and eventually it&#8217;ll run through a coroner&#8217;s court.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Resident Noom said Masters Road still needed speed cameras like the main Waiuku-Pukekohe road.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Well if they&#8217;re going to do it on one side, they&#8217;ll probably have to do it the other, and everyone will hate me saying that but this is what&#8217;s happening,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We had a crash there two weeks ago, they walked away from that one. We had a death there last year and it won&#8217;t be the last.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She said the crashes would continue until motorists were given a reason to slow down.<\/p>\n<p>The Givealittle page can be found\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/givealittle.co.nz\/cause\/support-for-the-vailea-and-extended-family?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR4j6uRc6GpeM6zkS9cqti3KmpaFyYnlXnNU02U4_PLK8tWp-oJS3FsJ9T9rUA_aem_XILgJ_UoSBoSdeklYyNq1w\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Source: RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A man who lost his wife, five-year-old daughter and niece in a\u00a0triple-fatal crash\u00a0on 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":14334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14335,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14333\/revisions\/14335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}