Three people who died in yesterday's crash near Wanaka were tourists from Hong Kong.
The overseas visitors were killed when their van collided with a truck-and-trailer unit at the intersection of State Highway 6 and Shortcut Road about 4.30pm yesterday.
The van's wreckage was removed from the the intersection of State Highway 6 and Shortcut Road on Friday morning. Photo: RNZ / Steve Wilde
A 60-year-old man, the driver of the van, and two women backseat passengers, aged 61 and 56, died. Another passenger, a 59-year-old man, remains in a stable condition in Dunedin Hospital. The truck driver was unhurt.
The Hyundai van has been removed from the scene. The road was being closed for about three hours again today to allow police serious crash investigators to undertake further work.
The deaths have renewed calls for overseas visitors to take a driving test.
Fewer than two percent of fatal crashes nationally involve tourists, but that number jumps to 25 percent in tourist towns like Queenstown and Wanaka.
Road safety campaigner Clive Matthew-Wilson said the figures were startling and the Government's strategy for dealing with tourist accidents had been a dismal failure.
Mr Matthew-Wilson says tourists should be banned from renting vehicles within 24 hours of arriving in the country on long- haul flights, and should also sit a comprehensive driving test.
Rumble strips could also help drivers keep to the correct side of the road.
The accident happened in Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean's electorate.
Ms Dean told Morning Report she did not believe tourists should be made to sit a driving test, but they should be given skills to cope with driving on our roads.
She is however spearheading a petition by Geraldine boy Sean Roberts, the nine-year-old son of a man who died in a crash with an overseas driver, and said the select committee hearing it will be thorough.
Grant Roberts and another man died when a Chinese student's car collided with their motorcycles in November 2012.
