Three teens die on roads

Two days, three young lives. In Taupo, the figures from the road toll are stark.

The first accident happened on Tuesday afternoon about 5km north of Wairakei, where 19-year-old Quinn Robertson and his 16-year-old friend, Corey Topham, hit an oncoming car at 120km/h. They were killed instantly.

Late on Wednesday night, student Casey Lind, 16, was driving home.

Despite slowing to half the 100 km/h speed limit because of rain, she lost control on a corner, skidded across the road and ploughed backwards over a fence before rolling about 40m down a grassy bank.

She was not found until Thursday morning when a truck driver spotted the upturned car in a paddock.

Crash analyst Senior Constable Peter Sowter said the circumstances of both accidents were completely different, but both drivers were teenagers on restricted licences.

"It highlights the dangers young drivers face." 

Mr Sowter said Casey was doing almost everything right - wearing her seatbelt and not speeding. But she was an inexperienced driver on a wet road.

By contrast, if the two young men had kept to the 100km/h limit, they would not have crashed.

"They would have carried on around that corner, gone home and lived to tell their tale."

Mr Sowter said the young men had been heading to Waiouru from Auckland, where they were believed to have been at a rotary car meet - possibly the Meremere Drags.

As they headed south several motorists noticed their speed and phoned police.

At 1pm, as the car headed round a bend on State Highway 1, Mr Robertson lost control and crashed into a northbound car.

The impact was so great that his newly painted Datsun 1200 split in two and glass from the shattered windscreen was found several metres away in a paddock.

The woman driver of the oncoming car was taken to Waikato Hospital with serious chest and pelvic injuries. She remains stable.

Mr Topham's family did not want to discuss the accident, and Mr Robertson's could not be contacted.

Casey Lind's family described her as "bright and happy", good at school and long-distance running, loved art, netball and drama and wanted to be on Shortland Street one day.

Her mother, Sonja Lind, said her daughter had spent Wednesday evening with friends. After dropping her boyfriend at his home, she headed along Poihipi Rd, which she had driven nearly every day since gaining her licence a year ago.

When she had not arrived home by midnight Mrs Lind starting calling her friends. By the morning she was out along the road looking for signs of an accident and soon came across police, who had just found the car down the bank.

Mrs Lind said Casey was a good driver who was always checking her speedometer, but she lacked experience. Mrs Lind hoped young drivers would learn from the accident.

"Just because you think you are big-time driving it doesn't mean you know it all."