KEY POINTS:
A drink driver was killed instantly when his car slammed into a tree trunk after soaring 20m off the side of a mountain yesterday.
William Ariki, 23, was found dead in his car at Winstone Park in Auckland's Mt Roskill about 6.40am.
Avondale Sergeant Martin Beeby said it appeared Ariki had been parked at the top of Mt Roskill before driving his Nissan Primera down the hill towards a roundabout at high speed.
After going through the roundabout the wrong way, the car hit the kerb, flew across a grass bank, and plunged down a 20m drop. "He actually cleared the trees [as he went down]," Beeby said. "He must have been going at least 80 or 90km/h."
Ariki appeared to have consumed "a fair amount of alcohol" before the accident, Beeby said. A half-empty bottle of rum was found in his vehicle.
Police were called by a member of the public who saw the crashed car. Officers discovered the body when they arrived at the park. Ariki was wearing a seatbelt and was not thrown from the vehicle, but pieces of the car littered the grass verge where it landed.
Police believed the accident occurred about 6am, Beeby said. Nearby residents reported a large bang, although the exact time was unknown.
Serious Crash Unit investigators attended the scene yesterday morning to determine the cause of the accident.
The victim's family was notified of his death yesterday afternoon but police were still making inquiries to establish the circumstances leading to the accident.
Beeby said the message to the public, after the crash, was "don't consume alcohol and drive".
Meanwhile, a head-on collision in Kaukapakapa, north-west of Auckland, on Friday night killed one man and injured another.
The Herald on Sunday understands both drivers were local men. Neither had any passengers.
Their four-wheel-drive vehicles collided on Kaipara Coast Highway, near the Kahikatea Flat Rd intersection, about 6.30pm.
Sergeant Stu Kearns of the Serious Crash Unit said yesterday there was no indication of the cause.
