Awakino victims were going on holiday

Three young Pukekohe sisters killed in a road tragedy were travelling to New Plymouth to spend Christmas with their uncle.

Police yesterday named the sisters who died on Christmas morning when a van carrying seven people plunged into the Awakino River, in North Taranaki, at 11.30am.

They were six-year-old twins Amanda and Cindy Su, and their five-year-old sister Sarah.

They were travelling with their two older sisters, aged 11 and 13, their mother and their uncle, who was taking them back to his New Plymouth home where they were going to stay for a fortnight.

Yesterday, mourning relatives gathered at the family's market garden in Pukekohe.

Neighbour Ivy Robertson said that the well-behaved little girls were members of a Chinese market gardening family, who had grown vegetables across the road from her house for about 12 years.

She said that she spoke to the children's mother, whom she knew as Mrs Su, on Christmas Eve, about her plans for Christmas Day.

Mrs Su told her that instead of spending Christmas with her husband's family in Pukekohe this year, she and the girls would spend a fortnight in New Plymouth.

The children's father would drive them to Hamilton, then her brother was to pick the family up from there to take them on to New Plymouth.

When Mrs Robertson heard the news that the young girls were the crash victims, she said "I just about flipped".

"They are just like grandchildren to me. They used to make a fuss of me and come over here."

The children would translate Mrs Robertson's words for their mother, whose English was not as developed.

Brett Mudge, the principal of Puni School, which the girls attended, said the twins were academic, bubbly, bright and very personable.

"They were growing in confidence all of the time."

Mr Mudge said his wife taught Sarah, who he said was also a "lovely little girl".

"My wife is terribly upset."

Acting Sergeant Chris Allan, of New Plymouth, said the area where the crash occurred was a bad stretch of road and the cause of the crash had yet to be determined.

The van left the road 2km south of the Awakino tunnel.

Mr Allan said the three victims were all sitting in the back seat of the vehicle. The survivors got to shore and raised the alarm with a passing motorist. The bodies were retrieved after a crane pulled the family's van out of the river at around 9 or 10pm.

Police had yet to speak to the family.

A man died in Otara yesterday when a speeding car hurtled off the road and hit a power pole.

James Meli, of police headquarters, said the car was seen at 1am doing a "burn-out". It then drove off at high speed. The driver lost control and the car crashed off the road, on to a grass edge and flipped over after hitting a power pole.