Five teenage boys die in New Zealand’s worst car accident for five years
Five teenage boys have been killed in a car crash in New Zealand’s worst road accident for two years.
The tragedy occurred in Washdyke, just north of Timaru halfway between Christchurch and Dunedin, when an overcrowded Nissan Bluebird car struck a power pole, killing every passenger on board.
The driver survived and was taken to Timaru hospital in a serious condition..
TVNZ reported on Sunday that the casualties were aged 15 or 16, and that the car involved was “in pieces” after breaking the pole in two.
“To have five lives lost in an instant is a terrible tragedy,” said NZ police superintendent Steve Greally, adding that not everyone in the car was wearing a seatbelt.
“It’s incredibly frustrating. Seatbelts save lives, and it’s evident that not everyone in this car was belted in,” Supt Greally said.
“Particularly in a small community, the impact of a crash like this stretches far, and everyone in the area will be hurting.”
Timaru district’s mayor, Nigel Bowen, told news outlet Stuff he was “absolutely gutted” to learn of the fatalities.
“We haven’t had a large accident like this where there’s been multiple deaths for some time,” he said.
“You just start to think as a father that having people not returning home in your family would just be near lifeending, it’s pretty hard to come to terms with.”
The crash is New Zealand’s worst since September 2019, when a tourist bus flipped in bad weather near Rotorua, also killing five.