Two teenagers are in hospital following a horrific crash where a car ended up wrapped around a traffic light near Te Atatu Rd in West Auckland at around 11.45pm last night.
The crash followed a high speed police chase. The teenagers taken to Auckland's Starship Hospital are aged 14 and 13 - one is in a serious condition and the other is moderate.
Senior Sergeant Jesse Mowat, who was at the scene, said the 15-year-old driver has been taken into custody following the incident.
Mowat said the patrol unit indicated to the driver to pull over, the driver chose to flee, there was a short pursuit and he has crashed into a pole.
The driver managed to get out of the vehicle and fled down the motorway on-ramp. The pursuing officers took him into custody, he said.
Mowat said there had been way too many incidents of young people in stolen vehicles fleeing from police and not stopping.
A message for all young people thinking of doing this, there are very, very serious consequences to that kind of behaviour, Mowat said.
"We want them to think long and hard before deciding to flee from police and putting their own lives at risk."
"The short and simple message is - just pull over."
A police spokeswoman said the vehicle was stolen and the driver was expected to appear in Youth Court today.
The Serious Crash Unit attended the scene and the IPCA will be notified, the spokeswoman said.
Earlier this month, two other people were taken in custody following a police pursuit that ended in a fire near Tauranga.
In another incident, in April, a person led police on a chase from Newmarket to Warkworth before the fleeing driver was stopped by road spikes. The incident resulted in a minor collision.
Since January 2008 there have been more than 30,000 pursuits, hundreds of crashes and 79 deaths.
Earlier this year, three teenagers were killed in a crash after fleeing police in Christchurch. Two were brothers - Glen and Craig Mcallister. They died after the car hit police spikes, crashed into a tree and went up in a "huge ball of fire."
Craig was 13 and Glen had turned 16 two days earlier.
Brooklyn Taylor, 13, was also killed.
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