Mum dobs in drink-drive crash teen

File photo / NZ Herald

A drunk driving teenager who fled from a crash which left a 16-year-old boy fighting for his life was later dobbed in to police by his mum.

Waikato district road policing manager, Inspector Leo Tooman, said emergency services were called to the scene of the crash at the intersection of Moore and Burns Streets in Leamington, near Cambridge, on Saturday about 8.35pm.

"The crash is currently under investigation by the Waikato Serious Crash Unit however it appears alcohol was a factor in the incident that saw a blue Toyota Corona hatchback fail to give way and collide with a Mitsubishi Legnum station-wagon," Mr Tooman said.

"The 16-year-old suspended driver of the Toyota fled the scene of the crash that left three of the five people travelling in the Mitsubishi injured, including one 16-year-old male who is in a critical condition in Waikato Hospital's Intensive Care Unit."

Mr Tooman said the offending driver's flight did not last long as he was handed in to police by his mother, and subsequently failed an evidential breath test.

"This young man should not have been behind the wheel of a motor-vehicle at the time of the crash and it is of concern to us that he had also been drinking.

"Young people on graduated or suspended licences were a factor in a number of multiple fatality crashes on our roads last year and we need younger drivers to realise driving is not a game, it is a huge responsibility."

Meanwhile the name of an elderly woman who died in Waikato Hospital on Saturday after being struck down by a car on Hamilton's Victoria St on Tuesday has been released.

She was Mary Hunter Clark, 81, of Dunedin.

Mr Tooman said Mrs Clark's death had been reported to the Coroner and she was the 22nd person to die on Waikato roads so far this year, the same number for the same period last year.

- NZ Herald staff