Woman dies after allegedly driving 140km/h in 50km zone

A 40-year-old woman died in this car. Photo / Jason Dorday

A 40-year-old woman died when her car hit a stone wall at high speed in Auckland yesterday morning.

Emergency services were called to the intersection of Mt Albert and St Andrews Roads in Three Kings about 7.30am where the rental car had hit the wall, Inspector Kay Lane said.

An eyewitness said he saw the woman drive by his house at about 140km/h in the 50km/h speed zone.

"She was going so fast I don't think she even had time to hit the brakes before she hit the wall," the eyewitness said.

"I went down but there was nothing we could do. She had no pulse. The ambulance tried to give her CPR but gave up after about 20 minutes."

Another resident, Noel Jackson, said he was woken by the noise of the car going past his house. "She had the radio on full and I could hear the car coming down at a great rate of knots," Jackson said.

"If you're not familiar with the road and go over the brow of the hill you don't realise that there's a stop sign.

"I heard a slam of brakes and she hit the wall with a bang that you could have heard for miles," he said.

"We ran down and I called the fire first because I saw the car was smoking and under the power pole. The radio was still on and the horn was blaring," he said.

His daughter Victoria said she thought the driver had fled the scene. "The passenger airbag had deployed and I couldn't see anyone in the car. There were a few other people there and one of them opened the driver's door to turn off the radio and found her under the dashboard.

"I don't think she was wearing a seat belt. There was no pulse," she said.

It was the second time in months a car had failed to stop at the intersection.

A few months ago a car hit another car and smashed into the wall, but the driver was unhurt and tried to flee the scene on foot.

Noel Jackson thought the road should be blocked off because the brow of the hill was too dangerous, especially as there was a special needs school near the intersection and too many people were driving too fast on the street. He said speed cameras and speed bumps should be installed.