Driving, not laws, need to change says family of car crash victim

Mukul Jaglan, 21, was one of eight people to die on New Zealand roads this week. Photograph: Supplied

The family and friends of an Indian student killed in a car crash this week say they are in shock and are pleading with other New Zealanders to take care on the road.

Mukul Jaglan, 21, died after the car he was travelling in collided with another car near Tokoroa on Monday. His friend, Bikramjit Singh, also died in the crash and another friend, Amit Sharma, was critically injured.

His was one of eight deaths on the road this week, which took the road toll for the year to 312 last night. It is running just behind last year's road toll, which was the worst in eight years.

Mukul's sister, Geetanjali Jaglan, said her grief should serve as a warning to other motorists to take care on the road.

"It is not the rules and regulations that have to change, it is the driving," she said. "We are just completely in shock.

"I had to go the mortuary to identify the people that had died. It was so hard, just so much shock - I shuddered."

Mukul had been visiting Geetanjali in Taupō with his friends Sharma and Singh, who studied with him at Unitec.

Geetanjali said they had lunch together at 2pm, and at 4.15pm Mukul and his friends were back on the road to Auckland. Forty-five minutes later, he and Singh were dead.

Singh was driving and Janglan was in the front passenger seat, his sister said. They collided with the other car on State Highway One near Ōhākuri, 35km south of Tokoroa.

Singh and Mukul died at the scene. Sharma was trapped in the back seat and had to be cut out of the car by firefighters. He was flown to Waikato Hospital in a critical condition.

It was raining heavily at the time, but police have not yet determined the cause of the accident.

At about 9pm, a police officer came to the motel in Taupō where Geetanjali was working and told her there had been an accident and that her brother might be among the dead. She was told she would need to identify him.

Originally from New Delhi, Mukul moved to Auckland in 2015 on a student visa and studied civil engineering at Unitec. He had a dream of building his own home in Auckland and settling his family there.

He was the youngest of four children. His sister and brother-in-law have travelled from Australia and his parents have flown from New Delhi, India for the funeral in Manukau today. His ashes will be taken back to India.

"He was a comfort for Mum and Dad," said Geetanjali. "He was very devoted to them and I know my mum and dad are going to miss him. I hope wherever he is, he will be watching over them.

"He was so remarkable in so many ways," she added. "He lived his life to the fullest and touched so many people in his time here with us."

Mukul also dabbled in modelling, and recently won a local event called Bollywood Factor NZ talent quest.

Adnan Malik, who organised that event and was a close friend of Mukul's, wrote a tribute to him online:

"I still can't believe you are gone," he said. "Such a small, talented, handsome, boy-next-door bubbly person [who] was one in a million.

"I can't stop my tears, as well as the tears of my heart. We will miss you for the rest of our lives, this still feels like a dream to us."

The New Zealand annual road toll has been rising each year since 2013, when 253 people died.

Earlier this year, the Government said that trend was "shocking and unacceptable". It set an audacious goal of reducing the road toll to zero, and is now developing a long-term strategy to achieve this.

In the meantime, it is making a number of changes including alcohol interlocks for repeat drunk drivers, reviewing speed limits around schools, accelerating plans to make speed limits safer on local roads, and investigating greater use of speed cameras and red light cameras.

ROAD TOLL

2018 (to Nov 1): 312
2017: 315 at Nov 1; Total 378
2016: 267 at Nov 1; Total 327
2015: 262 at Nov 1; Total 319
2014: 229 at Nov 1; Total 293
Source: Ministry of Transport