Youth, 14, killed in crash

By KEVIN TAYLOR

A 14-year-old has died after a car driven by another 14-year-old, believed to be travelling at 140km/h, ran off a country road and hit two trees.

Charles Wall is the fourth teenager from Taupo to die in a car crash in the past fortnight.

Police say he was a back-seat passenger in a Honda Prelude being driven by another 14-year-old near Edgecumbe on Tuesday.

The car went out of control about 4.30 pm on a narrow sealed rural road and hit two trees.

A witness put the car's speed at about 140km/h, police said.

The crash comes a fortnight after three Taupo teenagers died when 16-year-old Tauhara College pupil Graeme Bignell did a u-turn in front of a truck.

He was one of the dead, and was on a restricted licence that prohibited him from carrying passengers.

In Tuesday's crash neither the driver nor the three passengers were old enough to hold a licence.

It followed another accident involving a teenager on Saturday night near Reporoa, when a car driven by a 16-year-old male on a restricted licence rolled.

He was carrying seven teenagers, two crammed in the boot. Two received minor injuries.

The principal of Taupo Nui-a-Tia College, Graeme Ryan, was last night unaware of the latest death.

Clearly in shock, he said: "We have only just got through one of those."