Thirteen-year-old girl dies from injuries a week after Matamata crash

Wednesday, 5 January 2022

The site of the crash that left five children seriously injured. One has now died.

A 13-year-old girl has died just more than a week after she was injured in a serious crash at Matamata.

She died in Waikato Hospital on Tuesday.

The one-vehicle crash on December 27 resulted in five children, aged 10 to 13, receiving serious injuries.

They had all squeezed into a Nissan Tiida, which flipped into a ditch at about 11.55pm after the driver failed to take a slight bend on the Morrinsville-Walton Rd.

Police praised the efforts of those who went to the aid of five children in the wake of a late-night crash in Waikato.

* Matamata crash: One child discharged from hospital, two others still critical

* Matamata crash: Three children still in critical condition in Waikato, Starship hospitals

At least three of them were thrown from the vehicle in the impact and all were helicoptered or taken by ambulance to Waikato Hospital.

Two of the children are still in Waikato Hospital. One is stable in a ward and the other is serious but stable in a ward. Police are waiting for an update from Starship Hospital on the other child. The fourth child has been discharged from hospital and police reported the death of the fifth child earlier today.

Police earlier confirmed the vehicle had also apparently been used in a smash-and-grab burglary at a vape shop in Matamata earlier that night.

It is not known if anyone will be charged in relation to the crash, and how the children came to be travelling about the Waikato region in the stolen Tiida also remains a mystery.

The investigation into the crash is ongoing.