Death wish teen lived fast and died young

It's a tragic story of five young men, and a driver with a fatal weakness for speed.

On Friday morning four of those five, aged 16 to 25, died when the car they were travelling in - a 1996 Honda Integra, driven by 19-year-old Sebastian Sigamoney - left the road to Pukekohe 3km from the Southern Motorway. Police say the car was speeding.

Flowers and soft toys line the ditch where the Integra, Sebastian's pride and joy, came to rest.

The dead are believed to be Sebastian, Steven Upson, 16, Rodney Mountford, 25, and one other as yet unidentified teen. Shane Sheehan, 16, is on life support at Auckland City Hospital.

Shortly after overtaking a taxi at an estimated 140km/h, the car crossed to the opposite side of the road, becoming airborne before slamming into a stand of pine trees. The impact was so fierce that a mature pine tree trunk snapped.

Pukekohe mayor Mark Ball described the tragedy as one which will touch the entire town.

The driveway at the home of Brian and Margaret Upson is filled with young friends of Steven, seeking comfort together. A steady stream of wellwishers, laden with food and sympathy, are greeted by the boy's parents, who are barely holding control of their emotions.

"He was a great kid," said Mr Upson, voice breaking as tears take over. He last saw his son heading out just before 8pm on Thursday. Steven had come home from work as an apprentice automotive technician at Howe & Western Honda, "over the moon" with a new mobile phone.

 

"He said he was going to a friend's house and would be back around midnight."

Mr Upson rose next morning, turned on the computer and read the New Zealand Herald online. Early news about the accident turned him cold. He walked to Steven's room, looked in the door and saw the Holden bedspread covers undisturbed.

"I went to his room and he wasn't there. It was the worst thing ... the worst thing. I didn't know he was going into town that night."

An hour later the police arrived. "I know everyone is saying speed was a factor. At the end of the day, they were just kids. We were all young. It was a tragedy."

The Upsons had signed Steven out of school when he was 15 - a tough choice which, for Steven, became "the best thing he ever did". Steven had his apprenticeship, was flourishing as a soccer player and had applied for an international development squad.

Mr Upson proudly tells of Steven's actions at Pukekohe Raceway the day 15-year-old racer Michael McHugh crashed, and later died. Steven was among the first to help and won a commendation for his actions.

His son had "done all the right things. He'd bought himself a car, it was all insured under his name which cost him an arm and a leg."

Unlike the car in which he died, Steven's was "a little granny car", a small green Honda. He wanted to hot it up but his father convinced him to wait until it was paid off.

"He was close to all his friends he grew up with. They were a tight bunch. They're all great kids."

Sebastian Sigamoney, the driver on Thursday night, had told his parents he frequently drove faster than 200km/h and expected "to die young in a car crash". He came to New Zealand four years ago from Durban, South Africa, with his family, and was a keen swimmer and chess player, and had nearly earned his black belt in karate.

But his "pride and joy" was his white Honda Integra R-Type, which he bought a year ago without the consent of parents, Peter and Rosh.

Friends say Sebastian was sociable and popular, the sort of person who would "bring the whole town with him" to a party. "He knew everybody and everybody liked him," said his best friend, Brad David, who worked with him at Pak'N'Save.

Yesterday, Sebastian's grieving parents were struggling to come to terms with the reality of their son's sudden death.

"It's such a nightmare," said Mrs Sigamoney. "For him to die like that, burned to death, it's really traumatic."

Carol Mountford, the mother of passenger Rodney Mountford, 25, couldn't understand why her son was in the car.

She says he was a placid but intelligent person, who loved computers and watching science-fiction movies.

Rodney lived in Pukekohe with his mother and sister Karley, 27, and was studying computing at Manukau Institute of Technology while working at The Warehouse.

He was, she says, definitely not a boy racer. "He used to drive so slowly, like a granny. He would never speed."

At Auckland City Hospital last night, Tina Sheehan and friends were keeping vigil over her son Shane, who was only holding on via a life support machine. "Those who have visited, mostly from Pukekohe, draw comfort and support from each other and their love for Shane," says Ms Sheehan.

"He's never left alone, there's just so much support and love, it is just like a vigil."

Shane, an apprentice mechanic since last August, shared with his friends a passion for cars.

"I love him to bits, he's my whole world," said Tina. Struggling to hold back tears, she described her son as "everything to his mates. It's really hard to deal with, it's a waiting game. I just want my boy to wake up.

"The brain's not doing what it should and the blood's not doing what it should so he's definitely not out of the woods yet."

Rachel Hills, a friend of Steven and Shane's, said that any one of a tight-knit group of friends could have been in the car.

The boys were probably celebrating the start of the long weekend with a "good night out on the town" in Auckland, she said.

"When I heard I freaked out. I started ringing my friends to see that they were okay.

"It could have been anybody. It could have been me.

"So young, too young. That's what makes it so sad. They had a lot more to live for. They were just all too young."

- Herald on Sunday