1 killed and 7 hurt in fiery smash

By Beck Vass and staff reporters
A Tauranga teenager is dead and seven more people are injured after two cars collided and burst into flames near Bethlehem last night.
Police had not released the dead youth's name this morning but said he was a 17-year-old from Tauranga. It is understood he was badly burned in the crash, which happened at 9.35pm, and was dead by the time emergency services arrived.
Desperate bystanders are being hailed as "heroes" after dragging a burning 16-year-old male passenger from the car out of a window before emergency services arrived. The youth was taken to Tauranga Hospital suffering serious burns to his face, neck and shoulders.
The officer in charge of traffic in the Western Bay, Senior Sergeant Ian Campion, said a car travelling west on State Highway 2, near Kinloch Drive at Bethlehem, lost control on a moderate left-hand bend and crossed the centre line before colliding with an oncoming four-wheel-drive vehicle containing six people.
The two burning cars were left about 10m apart - the dead youth's car 4m down a bank towards a creek and the other in the middle of the road.
Both vehicles burst into flames on impact. It is not known whether the teenager died from injuries suffered in the crash or the fire.
Mr Campion said early indications were that speed was a contributing factor in the crash but police were unable to confirm this morning how fast the cars were travelling.
Mr Campion said the actions of the bystanders - understood to be a local resident who heard the crash and a passerby - had saved the passenger.
"Their heroic actions almost certainly saved his life."
Western Bay of Plenty St John area manager Jeremy Gooders said six members of one family, including three children, in the oncoming car were taken to hospital with minor and moderate injuries.
"It was a horrific accident," he said.
Tauranga Fire Service Senior Station Officer Mark Keller said both vehicles were well ablaze when 14 firefighters from Tauranga and Mount Maunganui arrived. "They were putting up a lot of smoke, a lot of flames."
Mr Keller said the passenger had been pulled from the wreck by that stage.
"His hair was on fire. He was a very, very, lucky young man."
Tauranga fire safety officer Ken McKeagg believed petrol from the man's car had leaked, spraying over both cars, before catching fire after the crash.
Firefighters were called to the scene again at 12.45am to cut the dead youth's body from the car as police continued the scene investigation.
Cordons were put in place and the highway was closed until 2am.
The occupants of the other vehicle were believed to have included three women and three children aged 11, nine and four. All six were wearing seat belts.
The smash startled nearby Bethlehem residents and passersby, many of whom rushed to the scene to help.
Bethlehem truck driver Simon Clotworthy said he was second on the scene just after 9.30pm.
"When I arrived I saw two cars which had gone off the road engulfed in flames. I'm not sure but I thought I heard someone screaming from the bush area near one of the cars.
"There was nothing anyone could do to put the fire out, a fire extinguisher would have been useless."
When he arrived, a number of people were standing around and helping direct traffic.
"It was so dark I really couldn't see much or heard what people were saying. I really was more interested in directing traffic to make sure there wasn't another accident, because you couldn't see the cars until you were nearly on top of them."
Kinloch Drive resident Tania Savage said she was lying in bed when the accident occurred.
"We heard a big crash, looked out the door and saw flames and (heard) a woman screaming.
"We didn't realise there was a car down the bank until we saw people running. I saw a guy pulling kids out of a car and some young guy was yelling out someone's name."
Nick Hutton, 14, said it wasn't only members of the public who risked their lives to save those in the burning vehicle last night but emergency service workers too.
"Those firemen are pretty gutsy.
"The flames were really close to the back end of the car and we were just waiting for them to hit the petrol tank ... they just ran in there and put them out," he said.
The crash has taken the Western Bay of Plenty road toll to nine this year, compared with 10 for the whole of 2005.