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A 15-year-old boy and a young mother-of-two are dead after a teen driver on a learner licence drove straight through a stop sign and collided with an oncoming vehicle in rural Waikato.
The crash, the second involving an inexperienced learner driver in the past five weeks, also left four other people injured.
It is likely to result in charges against the driver, Jesse Owen Kennerley-Williams, 16, of Waihi Beach.
The teenager's distraught mother last night told the Herald on Sunday her son was absolutely devastated about what had happened.
"He's not good at all. That's all I can say," Kennerley-Williams' sobbing mother said.
The teenager's girlfriend, 22-year-old mother-of-two Amy Gardiner of Huntly, was in the front passenger seat and died on impact.
Another passenger, Chad James Arnold, 15, also of Huntly, died shortly after at the crash scene, 17km north of Morrinsville.
The occupants of the 4WD, Wellsford couple Jennifer and Chris Heath, were recuperating from the ordeal at their daughter's Mt Maunganui home after escaping with minor injuries.
Gardiner's friends were also in shock last night.
One could not fathom how Gardiner's mother, who had been looking after her daughter's 2-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter at the time, would be able to tell them that "mummy has gone to heaven", one friend said.
Police were last night still investigating the cause of the crash, but did confirm that Kennerley-Williams drove through a stop sign before careering into a Nissan Pathfinder 4WD around 9.30pm on Friday.
Drugs or alcohol were not believed to be a factor in the crash.
Sergeant Neil Mansill of Morrinsville police said Kennerley-Williams was a licensed driver, but he did not want to say what type of licence the teenager held.
However, the Herald on Sunday understands the teenager was driving on a learner licence and had had the vehicle, a Nissan Sentra hatchback, for less than a month.
Learner drivers must have a fully licensed driver in the front passenger seat at all times and display L plates.
It is not known whether Gardiner held a full licence or whether the car had L plates.
The teenager could now face a raft of charges ranging from careless driving causing death to learner licence violations.
Last week, police called for a radical overhaul of the licence system after a string of crashes in the past year. Last year alone, 71,646 learner drivers nationwide were issued with infringement notices.
Last month, 15-year-old learner driver Andrew van Wyk of Auckland lost control of his car and ploughed into three North Shore children and their grandmother.
Friday's crash at the intersection of SH27 and the Tahuna-Paeroa road, known as the Swamp Road, was described by Mansill as "a bloody tragedy".
Yesterday morning, debris from the crash was still strewn across the intersection where the accident occurred.
Mansill said it appeared that the hatchback, travelling east from Huntly, went through a stop sign and collided with the Pathfinder, which had been heading south.
Both cars flew through the air over a traffic island, into a road sign and finally into a ditch.
Tahuna fireman Iain McDonald, who was one of the first on the scene, said "the little Nissan was absolutely toasted".
The Taupo-based Lion Foundation Rescue helicopter was called for Arnold, but he had died by the time it had arrived.
Kennerley-Williams escaped virtually unscathed, suffering only moderate injuries to the head and upper torso.
A third passenger of the hatchback sustained moderate injuries and was taken by ambulance to hospital.
The Heaths were also taken to hospital with minor injuries.
Maurice Chatfield, the nearest neighbour to the crash scene, said he heard a bang but didn't think anything of it until the helicopter arrived.
Police said the four in the hatchback all knew each other and were heading to the Waihi area from Huntly. The Heaths were on their way to visit their daughter in Mt Maunganui. Yesterday afternoon, Kennerley-Williams' step-father, who was also Gardiner's cousin, told the Herald on Sunday the teenager was only just starting to remember what had happened in the crash.
