Three die on notorious road

Three teenagers died in a head-on crash between a small car and a bus, north of Christchurch yesterday. Photo / Joseph Johnson

Three teenagers were killed and two others left fighting for their lives after their small car collided with a bus yesterday on a notorious stretch 30 minutes north of Christchurch.

Emergency service staff were devastated by the scale of the accident, in which three passengers on the bus were also injured.

The south-bound Mitsubishi hatchback car carrying the teens was crushed and the two males and one female died within minutes of the crash, despite the efforts of an off-duty medic and a firefighter who chanced on the accident.

The two men in the back of the car were critically injured. One was in intensive care last night and the other underwent surgery at Christchurch Hospital. One of those injured is Rhys Durham, whose mother Michelle Durham is a chef at the Amberley Hotel.

The crash happened on a notorious stretch of State Highway 1 at Woodend just before midday. A local resident whose sister was the first to reach the car said she suffered a "hell of a shock".

"She tried to administer some help. She said the girl had been sitting in the back seat and didn't have a seatbelt on. The wee girl went out the windscreen and hit the bus. It's very tragic."

An Amberley local said the dead girl's mother went into a service station on her way to the crash scene. She did not have enough petrol to make the 21km trip from Amberley to Woodend.

"At that stage she didn't know her daughter, her only daughter, was dead. She couldn't pay for the gas, she didn't have any money on her." It was understood the station owner let the woman have the petrol without paying.

Local man Bruce Davey could see the crash scene, about 50m from his house. "From what I could see the car was in half."

He estimated about 30 people had been killed in the 16 years he had lived on the "real bad stretch of road".

Davey's son, Robert, said the car was extensively damaged. "It looked like an elephant had sat on it."

Woodend teenager Jane Nikolaison, 15, said: "It was pretty bad - you couldn't even see it was a car any more."

Nearby residents Cheryl Judson and David Schumacher said the accident scene was notoriously dangerous. "It's a tragedy waiting to happen," Judson said.

The bus was owned by Christchurch Bus Services. Director Clive Peter said the passengers were being offered support and the driver was meeting a chaplin and being offered counselling.

Among the passengers was Kaiapoi High School student Cody Austen. His girlfriend Jamie-lynne Kirk wrote on Facebook that he received five staples to his head.

She shared her relief that Austen was not more seriously injured. "[I'm] so happy Cody is okay," she wrote.

North Canterbury Fire Service area commander Ross Ditmer said one of the teenagers in the back of the car was not communicating when they got to him and the other told firefighters he was in pain.

He said the crash was "one of the nastiest I have seen". "It would be up there - the sheer volume of people we were dealing with."

Most of those in the car were believed to come from Amberley, a rural town in North Canterbury.

Councillor Andrew Smart said he and his children knew the deceased and injured teens and it was a huge blow for the community.

He said a long-planned bypass on that stretch of road had not been built. "[NZ Transport Agency] spends all its money in Auckland. The Government seems to talk about putting up fuel prices to do road improvements but we don't seem to be getting anything done in North Canterbury."

Smart said the road between Amberley and Christchurch was problematic as there were no passing lanes.

"It's frustrating to have to travel for such a long time without any way of passing slow traffic. That's what's bringing on some of these accidents, they're taking the risk."

A Kawerau man died in a fatal accident earlier yesterday. He was found dead outside his car on a road near the forestry town.

Police said the man was not wearing his seat belt and that pre-mixed alcohol drinks were found in and around the vehicle.

- STAFF REPORTERS