Witnesses to fiery crash urged to come forward

Police say they are worried witnesses to a fiery fatal crash near Palmerston North may need counselling.

Hilary Drawneek, 64, known to friends and family as Ruth, was killed on June 17 when her Toyota crashed into a power pole on State Highway 57 near Shannon and caught fire.

Police believed a number of people saw the crash, or the immediate aftermath, and stopped to try to help before continuing on their journeys, said Sergeant John May of Foxton police.

"This was a particularly traumatic scene even for the emergency staff who deal regularly with this type of incident," he said.

"We need to locate these witnesses as part of the crash investigation but there welfare is also very important to us and it might be that they would benefit from some assistance from Victim Support."

- NZPA