KEY POINTS:
An injured Methven man lay next to his dead mate for hours after their car crashed in rural South Canterbury early on Saturday.
Senior Constable Murray Thatcher said Dylan Jon Moodie, 19, of Methven, was killed in the crash, one of six road deaths over the weekend.
His mate, a 20-year-old Methven man who was driving, suffered serious but non-life threatening injuries and is in Christchurch Hospital.
The crash happened in the early hours of Saturday on a quiet rural road about 12km north of Methven which led only to a farm and a power station.
The two-lane road passed through a gate and over a cattle stop before narrowing to one lane. Instead of taking a moderate left bend, the men's car had gone straight ahead, across part of a paddock, slid and gone down a bank and rolled several times.
The men were thrown from the car, lying where they landed until they were found at 8.45am on Saturday by a farmer checking his stock.
"When he was found by the farmer he was conscious then, sort of drifting in and out," Mr Thatcher said.
Police hoped to talk to the driver today.
In a separate accident, a man in his 30s is dead after two cars collided in South Canterbury early today.
A police communications spokesman said the man died after two cars collided and one rolled on State Highway 1, 1km north of Glenavy, about 2.50am.
Meanwhile, nine people were hospitalised after a head-on collision between two cars in Otago on Sunday afternoon.
Sergeant Dave Scott of Dunedin police said the crash happened about 1pm on State Highway 1 near Henley, 32km southwest of Dunedin.
Driver inattention or fatigue appeared to have contributed to the crash, he said.
SH1 was closed for about five hours, with a detour in place.
- NZPA
