Three people, including unlicensed teen driver, dead after Auckland crashes

Thursday, 7 December 2017

An unlicensed 15-year-old was driving a car that crashed in north Auckland, killing both her and her 25-year-old male passenger.

The pair died about 9.45pm on Thursday after the head-on crash at the intersection of Dairy Flat Highway and Potter Rd.

Another passenger was seriously injured, while the driver of the other vehicle was transported to hospital with non-life threatening injuries, police said.

The crash occurred about 90 minutes after a 51-year-old cyclist died in a separate collision in the West Auckland suburb of Te Atatū.

The cyclist, a Te Atatū local, collided with a vehicle and 'despite efforts from members of the public to revive him, he died at the scene', police spokeswoman Shelley Nahr said in a press release.

The incident occurred between Cellarmans St and Vinograd Drive.

Acting Waitemata road policing manager senior sergeant Todd Moore-Carter said there was nothing worse for a police officer than having to knock on a person's door and tell them their family member had died in a car crash.

'Our staff across Auckland have been working hard on keeping our roads safe, but we simply can't do it without our communities' help,' he said.

'At times we get a lot of criticism for having our road policing teams out as people think we are just trying to give out tickets. We are out because we want to change dangerous and risky driving behaviour in the hope it will stop 15-year-old teenagers dying on our roads.'

Moore-Carter said police were still in the very early stages if their investigation, 'and we still don't know why such a young girl was driving in the first place. We don't believe we have spoken to everyone yet'.

'All we know is that the vehicle has crossed the centre line with the other vehicle heading north.'

Moore-Carter said it would be nice if police didn't have to give out tickets at all because that would mean everyone was driving safely.

'We are really urging everyone to please take your driving behaviour seriously, no one who has ever been in a car crash would have thought it was going to happen to them.

'Serious crashes can happen quickly but we know how preventable they are.'

The serious crash unit was investigating the two collisions.