Waioeka River in Ōpōtiki. Photo: Supplied / Google Maps
Police have located the body of a person who died after crashing into a Bay of Plenty river last week.
A vehicle left State Highway 2 and went down a bank into Ōpōtiki's Waioeka River, around 2.5km south of the Tauranga Bridge, on 4 October.
"Search and rescue teams, including a boat, helicopter and Coastguard jet skis conducted sweeps of the river and riverbank on Friday," senior sergeant Richard Miller said.
"Unfortunately, the person and vehicle were unable to be located."
Police and rescue teams had been on standby ever since, "ready to respond once the river conditions were right to safely deploy a team to the area", Miller said on Thursday.
"Today, the river conditions had cleared sufficiently and Police along with search and rescue teams, local jet boat operators, and the Police National Dive Squad responded, searching the river.
"The vehicle was located at about 12:05pm, around 400 metres from the original crash site.
"The victim was located deceased inside the vehicle and has since been successfully recovered."
Police were pleased they had been able to reunite whānau with their loved one, Miller said.
Inquiries into the circumstances of the crash were ongoing.
