KEY POINTS:
A teenager is dead after the car he was in failed to take a bend and plunged into the Wai-iti River at Brightwater, south of Nelson, last night.
Nelson Bays area commander Inspector Brian McGurk said the 18-year-old Stoke man died after the 1989 Nissan 180SX he was in overtook another car on a straight section of Waimea West Road, Brightwater, and failed to take a gentle right turn about 11pm.
The car left the road just before a bridge over the Wai-iti River and dropped over a three metre bank before landing on its roof in the water.
Police believe speed was a factor in the crash.
One of the people in the car which was being overtaken clambered down to the river and pulled one of the Nissan occupants free.
The 18-year-old man was thrown from the vehicle and could not immediately be found.
His body was located by searchers in the fast flowing river about 300 metres downstream from the crash site 20 minutes later.
"At this stage we believe speed is a significant factor in the cause of the crash and suggestions that the vehicles might have been racing is only conjecture," Mr McGurk said.
A serious crash investigator, scene of crime officers and the CIB are at the scene of the crash today.
Police have not yet determined who was driving the car when it crashed.
The dead man's name will not be released until next of kin have been advised.
- NZPA
