Four road deaths in 24 hours

While survivors of the crash were worried about what their parents would say, two girls inside the car were dying. Photo / Northern Advocate

As the survivors of a crash that cost two teenage girls their lives waited for help, they worried about how their parents would react to their wrecked car.

Two girls were killed after a car driven by a teenage school-leaver lost control on a corner of Anzac Rd in suburban Whangarei early on Friday morning. The driver and two other teenagers in the car walked away.

Police yesterday attributed the crash to "driver inexperience". They breath-tested the driver but alcohol was not a factor.

But friends said the driver had only a restricted licence, meaning she could not drive between 10pm and 5am, and if carrying passengers, must have a driver in the passenger seat who has held a full licence for two years or more.

One resident, who didn't want to be named, said the car was blaring loud hip-hop music, which continued to play after the crash. "There was a lot of noise. They had the radio really loud. The driver said the music was so loud she couldn't concentrate."

The woman said the surviving passengers were fretting about the car and their parents' reaction as they waited for emergency services. No one realised the girls still trapped in the car were so seriously injured. "We just thought they were okay and I kept saying to them, 'They'll be okay, they'll get them out soon'."

A man living on the property where the car ended up after rolling down a bank said, "We were woken at half one with the sound of all the noise. The music was playing so loud and the girls were screaming."

The man said the surviving passengers had already got out of the car by the time he ran outside. "We just allayed their fears and went to see what was going on in the car and saw there were two in there. The car was on its side and it was in a pretty precarious situation."

There was nothing anyone could do until emergency services arrived, he said. "It was pretty horrible and I'm just coming to grips with it myself."

Grant Burns, principal of Tauraroa Area School, which the driver of the car attended until earlier this year, said the crash was an "absolute tragedy". "This sort of thing makes me feel sad mostly, but also frustrated. How many young people have to lose their lives through not wearing a seatbelt?" he asked. "A lesson will be learned within their immediate group of friends very, very painfully. It just happens time and time again."

The Whangarei CIB and serious crash unit is investigating the crash.

In another fatal crash a 22-year-old man was killed after a two-car collision soon after 1am yesterday on Auckland's Upper Harbour motorway. The dead man was driving west near Greenhithe Bridge and hit an oncoming car, Sergeant Steve Salton said. Speed was believed to be a factor. The driver of the second car was taken to North Shore Hospital and was last night in a stable condition.

Anna Evans, owner-operator of Monterey Park restaurant and conference centre, heard the crash occur. "I heard a horrendously fast vehicle. It came screaming past and then a solid bang," she said. "We have lived there for 20 years so we know the sounds well. I don't think I've ever heard one go that fast before."

Evans said she had previously written to Transit New Zealand to try to reduce the speed limit along the Upper Harbour Highway.

And on Friday night, a woman was killed in Mosgiel, near Dunedin, when the 4WD she was in rolled into a ditch. Roberta MacDonald, 29, from Mosgiel, was being driven by her husband at their section on Fairmile Drive when the crash occurred. A neighbour said they tried to drive up a steep part of their section but rolled into the neighbouring property.

- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: Alice Neville