A mother is in a serious condition after a quad bike she had been riding on with her two daughters and their father, left the road in Auckland's Whangateau.
Emergency services said the two girls and their father are not seriously injured, 1News understands the family was on its way to Saturday morning football.
Emergency services were called to the crash on Ashton Rd about 8.48am after a digger driver nearby heard the crash.
The Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter Trust said it was "tasked to a remote area near Leigh to assist a female patient in her 40's and two children suffering a fall of 50 metres on a quad bike down a muddy bank".
"The woman needed to be extracted by winch from a height of around 200ft [61 metres]. She was flown to Auckland City Hospital in a serious condition."
A St John Ambulance spokesperson said two others were taken to hospital in a moderate condition, while another person in a minor condition didn't require a trip to hospital.
A police officer at the scene told 1News: "A mum, two kids and a father have taken a significant fall down a 50-75m vertical bank."
A digger operator working nearby heard the crash and called emergency services. (Source: 1News)
He said ambulance services and a Westpac helicopter were able to winch down a paramedic to pull the family out, the mother being the "main victim".
"We've got two kids that were also transported through to Starship... [the father is] uninjured at this stage."
A neighbour said people in the area were using quad bikes to navigate a slip which had formed around November and got worse during the "big cyclone".
"After that the road was closed and people had to use quad bikes to go through because it was too narrow," she explained.
Senior Sergeant Matthew Child said “it's a really large, high fall - our staff along with ambulance and fire have put themselves in a fair amount of danger to get down to the injured parties.”
Auckland Council says it's too soon to comment but its road safety teams will assist the police investigation.
Whangateau is about 16km north of Warkworth.
SHARE ME