KEY POINTS:
Police have named the teenager killed when a joyride through the Waikato backblocks came to a deadly end after a police chase yesterday.
Pehi Tahana, 14, from Rotorua, was killed after the stolen Holden Commodore he was driving slammed into an oncoming van about 2.30pm.
The teenager lost control of the car after running over police spike strips laid across the road on State Highway 28 near Te Poi, between Matamata and Putaruru.
One of Tahana's passengers, a 15-year-old girl, remains in Waikato Hospital after breaking her leg in the crash. A 15-year-old boy, also from the smashed Holden, was treated and discharged last night.
The car had been reported stolen from Rotorua the night before.
The bloody climax to the chase took place outside the front gate of a Waikato woman.
"My boyfriend saw the police put the spikes down. By the time I got there, the car had gone over the spikes, the tyres had exploded and it had crashed right outside the gate," she said.
The 15-year-old girl trapped in the car was calling for help.
"She held her hands out to us. She was pinned in the back seat. I held her hand for about 30 seconds to a minute...I could see the guy was dying in her lap. It was horrible.
"The driver was crushed in half and thrown into the back seat. He was lying in her lap and she was saying, 'I've hurt my leg, I might not walk'."
Taupo area commander Inspector Kevin Taylor said his initial view was that police acted appropriately, though the matter was being investigated.
Police have strict guidelines around car-chases and using road spikes and a post-chase investigation was normal, he said.
The Police Complaints Authority had also been notified.
Officers began chasing the car in Welcome Bay but abandoned pursuit as it was too dangerous to continue through the busy 70km/h area through Tauriko, he said.
Police resumed pursuit further down the road.
The top speeds reached were only about 130km/h, and the chase took place on open road, he said.
"It was an old Commodore -- it was struggling to get up the hill. It was not a high-speed chase," Mr Taylor said.
- NZPA
