KEY POINTS:
Police are still trying to find the driver of a logging truck whose vehicle killed a young girl as she was going to school yesterday.
The 13-year-old girl, understood to be from Welcome Bay and a Year 9 student at Mt Maunganui College, was with her older brother, a Year 10 student at the school, when the accident happened about 8.15am.
She died from her injuries while being taken to hospital.
The driver of the logging truck - who police say might not be aware of what happened - did not stop at the scene and is yet to be located.
Mt Maunganui principal Terry Collett said the accident was a "horrible tragedy" for the young girl's family, the school and its students.
"Unfortunately one of our school buses had been behind the truck when it happened, so some of our students had a very graphic look at what happened," he said.
Many others were also arriving at school at the time and saw the accident. The college had offered counselling to students.
Mr Collett said the girl, who had attended the local intermediate before moving to the college, was popular and had a lot of mates.
"Certainly that is evident by the amount of support in the college for her," he said.
"Our thoughts obviously go out to this young girl's family and her friends and we will provide what support we can for them."
Mr Collett said the girl's tangi would be held on Saturday morning in Putaruru and the college would be providing buses for students who wanted to attend.
The college would also be holding some type of memorial next week.
Mr Collett said there had been problems for years with the 70km/h limit on Maunganui Rd outside the school gates.
The college had made several submissions to the Tauranga District Council to have the limit brought down to 50km/h but these were unsuccessful. There had also been requests for pedestrian crossings on the road for students to walk safely to school.
"It's a catch-22 really because you can only have pedestrian crossings in 50km/h zones," Mr Collett said.
"It's sad people sometimes wait until a serious accident or the loss of a life for things to happen."
Senior Sergeant Ian Campion of Tauranga police said the truck driver had still not come forward last night and the vehicle had not been located.
He said it was possible the driver was unaware of what had happened.
"Obviously we are interviewing a number of people in relation to the crash and have asked witnesses to come forward.
"We have also asked for any drivers of logging trucks passing through that area at that time of morning to contact us with their details."
- NZPA
