KEY POINTS:
A teenage woman has been dragged 400m to her death after tripping and falling in front of a bus as a male companion looked on.
The 18-year-old had been at the Lantern Festival in Albert Park, Auckland before she was caught under a Metrolink bus about 10m from the intersection of Wellesley St and Mayoral Drive late on Friday evening.
The bus driver, described as "senior" by his company, came to a stop near the Symonds St underpass.
Kaz Bos and her partner Martin Johnston were leaving the festival with their 10-year-old daughter when the woman was hit.
"I just saw a man and woman walking across the road," said Bos. "The woman tripped or fell and was on the ground and the man looked back at her.
"Then there was a thump ... it was like magic, one minute she was there the next she was gone. It was awful.
"She went under the bus, we could only assume that she was stuck ... she didn't come out the other end."
Bos said a man in his 20s was following the bus in his car.
"He came around the corner after the bus, got out and shouted 'where's the girl'. He was quite distressed.
"We were all shouting 'she's under the bus'. He jumped back in the car and followed the bus to try and get it to stop."
Johnston said everyone was screaming at the driver, who was travelling at an estimated 15-20km/h, to stop.
"The woman must have been sucked under the front of the bus. We kept expecting to see her body come out the side or from behind but there was nothing.
"She didn't scream, there was just a 'boof' sound and she was gone."
About 10 minutes after the New Zealand Bus vehicle stopped, Johnston went to see what had happened. He said the driver was walking around the back of the bus with a police officer.
Meanwhile, Bos found the woman's cellphone on the road and handed it to police.
Police said the woman died later in Auckland Hospital but no further information was available.
New Zealand Bus northern region general manager Zane Fulljames said the driver called the company's control centre as soon as he became aware of the incident and control centre staff contacted emergency services.
"This is a tragic accident and our thoughts are with the young woman and her family," he said. "The driver concerned is being supported with access to counselling services."
New Zealand Bus has 600 buses on more than 90 routes in Auckland. Previously called Stagecoach, it was renamed after being sold to Wellington investment firm Infratil for $250 million in 2005.
The national secretary of bus drivers' union Tramlink, Gary Froggatt, said fatal incidents were rare given the number of journeys driven by his members.
High-profile cases include the death of Rongfa Jiang, a 53-year-old struck by a bus on Dominion Rd in Auckland in April 2007.
In January 2007, Paul Brosnan suffered a fractured jaw and needed 30 stitches in his face after he was hit by a bus in Wellington.
