A teenager has appeared in Napier District Court facing 10 charges relating to a Napier-Taupo highway crash in which one man died and the teenager and nine others were injured.
The crash happened when a van turning across State Highway 5 at Tarawera was struck by a northbound wine-tanker on the morning of October 19 last year. The truck continued across the highway, and crashed through a barrier and overturned down a bank at the site of the Tarawera Cafe, formerly the Tarawera Tavern.
The driver of the van appeared briefly before a Registrar in court today facing one charge of careless use of a vehicle causing the death of Samoan Registered Seasonal Employer (RSE Scheme) horticultural worker Tino Tagiilima, and nine of careless use of a vehicle causing injury to other passengers, also RS workers from overseas.
![The scene after the crash on October 19, the wine tanker crashing through a barrier and down a bank at Tarawera. Photo / File](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/LNQ22BMQPABMD44EZ4H3FRUMSE.jpg?auth=361860f5312f10bfecd6af6924e13b90cc93041ad32ec95e2185f3ff58d1cb8c&width=16&height=11&quality=70&smart=true)
The injured were taken to hospitals in Hastings, Palmerston North, Rotorua and Gisborne, with the van driver being seriously hurt and also spending some time in Wellington Hospital.