Teen caught driving at 191km/h

Teen drivers are in the spotlight after four young people died in this crash in Hastings at the weekend. Picture / Hawke's Bay Today

A teenager is facing charges after being caught driving at more than 190km/h.

Senior Constable Neil Warren abandoned chasing the Mazda Familia -- the same type of vehicle as in the high-speed Hastings crash two hours later in which four teens died and two others were seriously injured -- when he realised he could not catch it while driving safely enough.

About 9pm on Friday he had clocked the car travelling at 191km/h as it entered a 100km/h zone on SH3 near Te Awamutu, Waikato. 

Mr Warren later found the car. Police have yet to decide what charges they will lay.

In another case involving a young driver, a car doing about 120km/h in a 50km/h zone on Hamilton's Crosby Rd yesterday afternoon lost control on a corner.

The car skidded over a footpath, narrowly missing a school student, and ploughed through a garden before crashing into the front steps of a house.

The 18-year-old male driver was unhurt but police said he was lucky to be alive.

"There was not a scratch," said Constable Craig Berquist. "I'm amazed there are no fatalities. It's the most bizarre accident I've ever seen."

Shona Childs, who lives at the house where the car landed, said she was "shocked beyond belief". She said: "I can't believe he didn't hit that little girl."

Mr Berquist said the driver would be charged with reckless driving, which carries a maximum sentence of three months in jail or a fine of up to $4000 and a minimum sentence of six months' disqualification.

The incidents come at a time when crashes such as that in Hastings have prompted politicians to consider raising the legal driving age.

Transport Safety Minister Harry Duynhoven told National Radio today that lifting the ages for the graduated licensing system was an option, although there needed to be public discussion.

A discussion document would look at issues including how young drivers were trained, whether the existing driving test was "too easy" for them and whether the legal driving age was too low.

It was too difficult to stop young people from driving high-powered cars, as there was not a car aged 10 years or less that was not capable of exceeding the speed limit.

"We have an unusual and explosive mix in New Zealand. We have a very young driving age, when you can begin to drive at age 15 and then go through the graduated driving process ... but we also have a large number of very cheap, high performance, used cars available because we have such a glut of cars in New Zealand."

Mr Duynhoven said that was why he had suggested compulsory third party insurance. About 60 per cent of motorists carried insurance.

He agreed part of the issue was mental maturity "and that's why we need to look at whether today's youth are actually, overall, on average, adequate to drive at 15".

- NZPA