200 say goodbye to young victim

Adam Pretorius. Photo / Supplied

A 4-year-old boy killed in a head-on collision north of Auckland was farewelled yesterday.

About 200 family and friends of Adam Pretorius gathered at the Windsor Park Baptist Church in Mairangi Bay for a "celebration" of his short life.

Mourners who came from as far as Adam's native South Africa, Germany and Australia were told to wear bright-coloured clothes.

A private cremation was held for the immediate family afterwards.

The crash happened on Friday afternoon last week when a car being driven by Adam's grandmother crossed the centre line on East Coast Rd, Redvale, 23km north of Auckland.

His two sisters were also in the car but Holly, 6, was unable to attend yesterday because she is recovering from spine surgery, in Auckland's Starship Hospital.

Surgeons worked for nine hours to fuse two vertebrae together. She is believed to have been left paralysed from the waist down.