Two Mount Maunganui 17-year-olds are dead after a head-on crash near Paengaroa last night.
The accident at 6.45pm closed State Highway 33, about 15km south of Paengaroa, for nearly four hours as emergency services worked to clear the road.
The two male teenagers, who died at the scene, were in a Subaru
station wagon heading south towards Rotorua when it was in a collision with a vehicle travelling in the opposite direction.
Their names have not yet been released.
The driver of the second vehicle, a four-wheel-drive, was taken to Tauranga Hospital with moderate injuries. He was a 27-year-old from Tauranga and was still in hospital today.
Traffic was diverted around the crash until the road re-opened again at 10.30pm.
Tauranga police acting Senior Sergeant Darryl Brazier said the serious crash unit was investigating the accident's cause.
The double fatality brings the Western Bay's road toll to seven so far this year.
